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UNIVERSITY OF 
ILLINOIS LIBRAR‘ 


AT URBANA-CHAMPA 


BOOKSTACKS 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 


https://archive.org/details/sealcylindersofw100ward 





JUISUE, SAE, CY ILJON DUBS: 


OF 


WESTERN ASIA 


BY 


WILLIAM HAYES WARD 





WASHINGTON, D. C. 


PusBLIsHED BY THE CARNEGIE InstrruTION oF WasHINGTON 


1910 


CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON 


Pusiication No. 100 


PRESS OF J, B, LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA 


PREFACE. 


For twenty years I have given a good part of the minutes or hours that could 
be spared from very engrossing daily office-work to the study of Oriental seal 
cylinders. I first hoped to be able to master the cuneiform texts, and had begun the 
study as far back as 1862; but the driblets of time which could be taken for it, 
often with long periods when nothing could be done, were not sufficient to achieve 
a task which needed all one’s time if merely to keep in memory the forms of so 
complex a system of writing. Not being myself a professional Orientalist, I there- 
fore sought an easier task and a field which did not seem to be overmuch trodden 
by scholars, and yet where M. Ménant and M. Heuzey might be my teachers. As 
it was not possible for me to study in libraries or museums, I was compelled to 
depend wholly on my own library for books and on my own efforts to collect cylin- 
ders, as far as possible, and casts of those in museums or in the possession of private 
persons. By the favor of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and of the office 
in which I was employed as editor, I was able to spend a part of two summers in 
Europe, and I hereby express the warmest thanks to M. Heuzey, of the Louvre, 
to M. Babelon, of the Bibliothéque Nationale, and to Professor Delitzsch and 
Dr. Messerschmidt, of the Berlin Museum, where I was allowed to make careful 
notes of all their fine collections of cylinders and to obtain casts of all that I wished. 
Nothing could have been more generous than their courtesy and their help. I had 
been allowed a similar opportunity for study some years before at the British 
Museum, and was able again briefly to reéxamine its fine collection of cylinders, 
for which favor I owe thanks to Dr. Budge. It is very much to be desired that 
these entire collections should be published in as admirable a style as that in which 
M. de Clercq published his fine collection. JI am also indebted to numerous owners 
of smaller collections of cylinders, among whom I may mention the late Lord 
Southesk, Mrs. Henry Draper, the Marquis de Vogué, and M. Schlumberger. I 
have also had the advantage of the fine collection which has passed into the posses- 
sion of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan since the text of this volume was written and 
which, since the de Clercq collection has gone to the Louvre, is now by far the 
largest collection in private hands and is particularly rich in Syro-Hittite cylinders. 

Of the public collections in this country the Metropolitan Museum has acquired 
by far the largest number of cylinders, most of them obtained by purchase from my 
own collections; but I have been able to make use of its numerous Cypriote cylin- 
ders, gathered by the late General di Cesnola and published in his “Atlas” of 
Cypriote antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum, also that collected by A. P. di 
Cesnola and published in his “Salaminia.”’ 

I have received through the kindness of Professor Lyon the privilege of taking 
casts of the cylinders in the Semitic Museum of Harvard University; and to the 
courtesy of Professor Hilprecht I owe the same privilege in connection with the 
collection of cylinders obtained in the expeditions to Nippur of the University of 
Pennsylvania. To many others, by whom I have been allowed to receive casts of 
cylinders in their possession, I give acknowledgment in the text of this volume. 


ili 


IV PREFACE. 


But I owe particular thanks to Prof. Ira M. Price, for his labor in translation of 
inscriptions on cylinders and reading the proof of the entire work; and to Professor 
Morris Jastrow, Prof. W. A. V. Jackson, Prof. W. Max Miller, and Dr. Louis H. 
Gray for valuable suggestions and aid; also to Dr. T. G. Pinches, who has given 
his scholarly assistance. I have been much helped by the technical knowledge of 
Mr. George F. Kunz in determining the material of the cylinders; and Mr. Daniel 
Z. Noorian, by his acquaintance with the customs of the Orient and his skilled aid 
in detecting forgeries, has given me much valuable aid. 

In editing a public or private collection, it would be most desirable to have 
all cylinders represented by a phototype process, as in the case with the magnificent 
collection of M. de Clercq edited by M. Ménant, and that of Mr. Morgan edited 
by myself; but this is not possible in such a work as this, which depends on all sorts 
of casts, in plaster, hard or soft wax, or gutta-percha, or even on a paper squeeze 
or the impression on a tablet. The only practicable way was to have the impres- 
sions drawn by an artist under my direction; and while this method has its disad- 
vantages, it yet makes more distinct, especially with worn cylinders, the outlines of 
the figures. I have thus followed the examples of Lajard in his magnificent “ Culte 
de Mithra” and of Ménant in his “ Glyptique Orientale.” 

My purpose has been, passing by the Egyptian cylinders, as already sufficiently 
given to the public, to provide as complete a monograph as possible of the cylinder 
art of Western Asia, from Persia to Palestine and Cyprus, and to classify the cylin- 
ders by countries and subjects. I have especially desired to study the forms under 
which the gods and their emblems were worshiped, so that we may add pictorial 
representations to the literary material which a host of scholars have gathered. 
While I have given my best efforts to make this work as nearly complete as possible, 
yet I know there will be many points brought out which will give further sugges- 
tion to learned Assyriologists, who will find from the texts light which has escaped 
me. [| may also venture to hope that the interrupted and fragmentary way in which 
I have been compelled to pursue this work has not too much prevented that con- 
sistent and harmonious discussion of the many interrelated branches of the subject 
which is so essential. While I have done what I could, much may have escaped me of 
some importance in the fields of special study which reach from the plains of Elam 
and the later investigations by M. de Morgan, to the Cretan discoveries of Mr. Evans. 

The reader will observe that in a certain number of cases a cylinder has been 
repeated in a succeeding chapter for comparison with those there considered. 
This is true especially of Chapter 111, where the cylinders which we can date by the 
names of kings inscribed on them are duplicated in the chapters where their designs 
place them. Also in Chapter Lxvi, on “Altars and Sacrifices,” it seemed well to 
gather a number of cylinders previously considered. The author regrets that the 
numbering of the figures is not quite consistent, but the process of revision has com- 
pelled occasional deviation from a regular sequence. ; . 

Such as it is, I commit this work to the judgment of scholars. Of this I am 
satisfied, that the thousands of cylinders that have passed under my eye have 
included the main Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, and Syro-Hittite types, and to 
no one will further explanations and better identifications of the gods and their 
emblems be more welcome than to myself. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER PAGE 
ET CIAC Gis tea eicasis tie wt’s siete itty st: Roe RET ME ae TAT TN Tees: iii 

Le atroauction 3 Origin, Use,” and Materials. a eee, te ae ea ee ee I 

LIMB DI ONO TADNY Meare isc ais vc see’ ects vg POS WR Sau Ee ar a Con ee UR a eo. Tal 

Te lassiication or Cylinders: ye caye's At, ck DL eee ee eee eee te eee, oe a 19 
EVomeatchaic Vy tigerss) line Haple'of Lagash, = 2 trem on nee eee een ee ee ae 30 
Vemeronsicc yiinders:s Lhe seated Deiticsy. Qo... 1. et eee rs hae eee 5 Sete 36 

WV UeAtchaiceylinders: A Deity in a Boat./.2. 555 62) Se eee ee ee RT eee: 40 
VilaeArchatcaC ylinders) Contests with Wild) Beasts. 4k aa eee ee eae. eee & 44 
Vile heawWineedel reson subdued). x1. ees, wan Ges Oe Ve eee eee ae ee 48 
Teme Dea CUnErachiNovan Mneniy ssi. 2 sve heats eile le eT I 1 ee. 53 

Xe Colleamesnestabanis andthe Divine Bulls says aie eae etree ne EEA gone 59 

x Dem Gail pales Ney itly Ok! CANS. take, sel 44 N's.) oe SORE, ee ys ee 76 

ba oe, USER IRESIEY oak, 0rd Wy 3 es a ns AM coe hed race Aen 4 Sale! 80 

x Time ohamasiyarliner ising Sun 4../.4.. 25 38% 8.4. 12) PA Se eRe Cen MRT SEEN 87 
XD Vemune seated onamash With Rays or Streams"... en tsnt att. eee eee ame eee 96 

X Vem ie oun-(rociand the Dird-IVian tyant.. «2c Wess beets ee ein Sco 102 
Vile ne seatedsGodawithsapproaching Figures ti .cavonitesics sore is eet ae tee toe 108 
Dav Ll ocmessywitnany meecds Gate and Bullies... ven cee ge One Mee ee Ce 128 
Dov L LIME eRoer Dent sOGS bere crease ces spd cee Shee ally ANA ee ne een Bake § 127 
XT om ettles rome pTICIN Cure). nal yarns Sco gerd Gerd Ghee ieee Sry ten Sn is te Re el ae gene is2 

XM cusemiesitsatnennourruits: oUhe <*'lemptation’ Scenes 1...) heen a eee 138 
Xam X Pec ONs SCONE ygtrc SIE NPS ae c's oe 5 sc 25s vere cote as tg eee anata Stee oe ae 140 
Dore taiseari et hema e retest cucu ada: evar eho s © nlite kone S w atath © eye enter te 142 
DoxLL ea lianimuncercthe: bent  LTeemiae cca. as ik yea ave CEG asics = 8 ai Meneame oe ale oee 149 
Verma NCR CSOCCeSSsaNG DUCT srs as aia alae eh eiecee etme vic ce 9 6 poh eneee mates ale eis 152 
ROERYES MIEINEN sds 1 SiNGe SAR COREE SER OV eRe Ae ma ORES ale, at a ere mR Baar yey: ic oe ea 155 
DOG me nemNaked. (sod dees gue can aucsuhe Ul ate sis Ga are se 6d ony «ain sus ENS GuereRs Rese oie 161 
XN AVEl PMV arcuicmmithethesocinitay sents Geile ates, « mikde’..s Vote ws ehisice sea ana ae oe des 163 
DOCV TI TeGOC With POOt ONgV ICU <4 Pade hoes os oe ee be ol ORE ROAR EADIE Tee sane oes 167 
DOCt me em rapolrowallowinord VialN a get ien antec cion 9 mouse + ore saan euetiaenc, Os sR gods = 169 
DOR A ear Cad ancaGing cas DUIWe te kre chs We sity side nals nid, saat aie ets okelen ot tan te, Meee P71 
POLOGE! VET ATP ier ERS UTE Oy acs a ee oc RR Mee a ie RCC oe acs th egrery cart Omran airy heads 176 
XO Ele hicks @ylinders.watheohtines anduAnimals:; se, ose oe Meat ery ap ee «ase 179 
POON emule Kassites@ viincersaeycamtnts Saneree © 7 ev cranes tea see cee aera: see edeee Bsa he 184 
DOV em ncelater bapylonian Peri0d stack aso. © a6 tremens eee aa) mene eine. fs 193 
oo umm Vitecel ancouss Day OMAR CV INCeTS 25 on. ects emanates aed reese nee 0 196 
Xa) JemAcsy tan vluncers saebel.and the, Dragon 0 ois ahs en GG 197 
XXXV 1 a Assyrian: Cylinders2, ThejSpouting Vase . iy. tne ems sci nye es ees ke ee se 213 
Dox Nev Ili we AssyrianeC yinderscmcl ne Tree of Life ei) acter atte eee enna fur Weim merle aes 219 
DORIA mrceateds a esyriains LICIIES tv soca is a ale gute eiai art itets are wterele Wickes ci) g ian 4 eo) hlacs ala ons 239 
DC Mme react AraC) @SIatatin ee cect eal a. sects see se a) the or at eer cncet gees eeee Ree Te nes ws Sars 248 
Deletes Physicians goed! fe reasctsedeeba > Wo ektmie Seti oneale ese ete ile = a OLY 5 = 255 
XLII. Syro-Hittite Cylinders: General Considerations. ........... 00... eee ee eee eee, 256 


vi CONTENTS. 
ALI. Cylinders; with Hittite Inscriptions s-. n ae ines eee ene eee eee 267 
ALLY «. Syro-Hitnte. Cylinders ; 3. Keyptian Style: se «tems cous ce eee ee nee 270 
ALV.) syro-Hittite Cylinders: “Babylonian, Types 22.7 a ee = ee eee ee ee 274 
ALVI.~syros Hittite Cylinders >, (The Loyrer World mor. cer. sien anne erate teen rete ene erase 280 
MUVIL) The) Hitnte: Vested: Godt 2. nasueaee vee enn cater face ce Sete rar tr nme tes eae 284 
ALVILITS (Veshubg cre a a-o «5 ate Wak ee cioe sr See ee Sree eC Se ote ete Pena 288 
ALIX The Seated Syro- Hittite, Goddess ayers. sche eeerete ciate et enn gt eee te 293 
L. Syro-Hittite Cylinders: ‘The Goddess with Robe Withdrawn ..................- 296 
LI, *Winged ‘Figures in Syro-Hittive Gylinderstiersanicnta eee hie eee eee 303 
BIL! YT he: Bull-Altar .. ich vars «hte pane eh ites ate ree 307 
LILI Syro-Hittite: Deity ana, Chariots 71 3. saree ce itr mes ete les eee S41 
LIV;. Rude: Syro- Hittite, Cylindersi,) 70. in. ae the ere tert ear eee ne 314 
LV; Miscellaneous Syro-Hittite: Cytinders 22a yepes ie te teen ee ee 316 
LVI. Objects Repeated © ccc acon oo ate bie ote mle meer eee ets ele eel oe el el eae ces eee, B23 
LVII.,. Geomettical Designs) ,0.7. 0c <a acco es eee ae ey A 225 
LVI. Military: Scenes soo e.5 ee) cae ss tee arte ge eo ot eae ec 27 
LIX. «Hunting Scenes? obi. 5 wcas See sox re Ae ee eee ie ae eee i oe 330 
LX. Persian Cylinders: Mythologic and Heraldici2 =) see een iere ee ace ries sect 336 
LXI._ Cylinders with Phenician’ Inscriptionss," ne) ee et 341 
LX, Cylinders: from, Cyprus... 2 Fos. alec crecce te are ane tie rep ate Miter sci en nee em 344 
LXTIT.Sabean* Inseriptions®.3 5 222 Su ata oe se ee eee 5% 
LXIV. Greek’ Influence’), © oe Soi spate yea ny Resa te oe ea Ne ie ee B55 
LXV. Susian’ Cylinders os. 25.6. 20% tga aes <n cies ere Wee ene ai ga ces ae ace 
LXVI.+Altars-andSacrificesis... 24): 1"; op chee eae no aiake ee eerste ee ee eee 360 
LXVII The: Recognition of the) Detties )iemies. eames ee ee ieee 368 
LXVIUI.+Figures: of Deities». /.c0 550s. els attire sdoeaete press a heloiog «once ates ee 372 
LXIX. . Emblems of Deities 5200 ias-, cpcis tacts eran as hte tal oie ok od eee 389 
LXX. The Animals, and ‘Plants fguredion the Cylinders © ery seranels ee aia ees 414 
LXXI. Origin of Babylonian Civilization, from Arenzology: ua se. 2 so ie ei ee 424 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 





i (aerepialiestopper ova sar, "vi etropolitaryavi useum we. 2 ee eae ie GC yA = ee es er 
2, Pat/of clay impressed with cone seal; belonging to W..H., Ward .........02-00ves000cus I 
gs Case table¢impressed with cylinder, belonging to W. HaWartd). .4.2 as. aval ase os fe aves 1 
APRODEUCY INGE? NCONCAV Cre rem t.a.NGN Teed ns 3H bieweale eet ae a. 43 SR Re See 2 

Fry locer mulyvacyiumarscalien to eer ars Th Sec wile ae Shinn a ey Ca RS MOS SU eee temas & 2 
Gary HNGereWiLTCONVEX CN gee pees 6 22 eile is Bis wis vc suis Me Siete PROMI Ie eA ech ae es 2 

Pero arrel-endpedrey linden warn, tere Sah oes Sas aoe Bek es Ol nd Ad ad a RRS ea OR ee 2 

3: Imperfect evlnderrorring,s| err ier pont; Morgan) Library sxsy at ia sss 2 5 cee Oe Rede ee 2 

SASSY Rat CO llc rcca le mena tee rake he As a1. cde pete Nae Gn MeveP IN. Nes ettc de ge we yee 2 4 
LOer assy tianrseal swith octazOnaly section qe-rtes: Beas cpfow 2 oe es OR SEO, Oe ene ss Z 
Iie cicmisphericaleoaesanian- seals). | ierpout) Morgan, Library @imncw ete oe PNe ene ee eel 2 
Tze King-shapedisassanian sealye). Wierpont\ Morgan, Library A; 2 Seo. acn | eatin: pe kee Se 2 
eta ae WALT IEA SONS. bil avis oS DE Re Rea, oan ee eee tr ee z 
LAO AING AGt LOOV C emMem tance Mica cor cha gh tus: 40595 Wie AV aie Gha-'egur ns cakes, SROMNENN ce <tar ang RG So rone Cae ee a 3 
15. Tablet impressed with cone seals, University of Pennsylvania Expedition, IX, plate X, fig. 18.. 3 
POvel OG my iinaeranwlt re UAnicles al Cnc vautesn cle a. c.0 cay ote) Mead cue e) tevtge es oasis SPR A ee 3 
Eee oy LOT mote CHAT BOC CHAS) tir.) uatts oon 4 cute se Sha A edith acres SUMP ran ie OA ar ees aan Cee © 3 
LO MpLIOM SACL RALCIIAICRC UNUCL te teveus, anand Juk ls Wee ohls rapa che ta" tea UhoeuogeMeuas by ahe 04. ws ottey fs eae ee mereee © 2 
Pov Guac vuncersmwitmemetal) handles. ner weer fy oars. «2% 304 NARs ee eRe Cena he 3 
20, 21. Ornamented gold border of cylinder, University of Pennsylvania Expedition, XIV, p. 15.. 4 
22. Egyptian seal-maker. Proceedings Society of Biblical Archeology, XXVII, p. 281......... 9 
2a, 24725 ey indersrsnowing use Of enptaving tools... cu. 5s 5 wees 22, cee See a peg s 9 
ZOmC viincer olsoarpoums,.ae Clercq Cataloguc, No, 465 252.052 an ey ee ey ae tena 20 
PMc INGEL POLED I= gallinsiiatall wares Matera n'y Mutat oa o/c) wl SCE as ge te SE ee Tnogaions 20 
Zoe Cylinder ol biapur-akii, «British Museum too oi @/ 9 ec in nose ore, 1 Sh am we I fener artikel 20 
ZomCyinccrola Kington lrecn, victropolitan Museum <7. 27. 604s. ao retshe 2 eyes seme eee 20 
BOY NCerrOM UT Engut, british IV USeUM maa. fi wes wm, is aie sacs ce ake 4 ee nates note Zi 
Rie Ovindersorungis british il Uselti acco aie ose ae ee 4 © slats Sis ee enemies UMP sES ye 22 
Bere yindeomDunei. de, Clercq: Catalogue, (80 552 oy a. 4. 4 « shee eetem ima auld ers Ein raret ct ete 22 
Bay inde a! Gur-oin sberlin Viuscuim ty AZ7 200.9... 5. 24s sy Ase ates pls wenn ma eee = 22 
aac yinder on Giml-sin,eperineVinseum,sVAOQ7). 5, 5.0 s+ 26ers se eee oe Gree aie emus 23 
ece C yincerorcsimil oi, evienant, Flerres Gravecs, 1p. 132.0605... we = 2 so cen wee eed © 23 
46. Cylinder’of Ibi-sin;'}. Pierpont Morgan Library 2.00.05 yan vias iow ee « 23 
37. Royal cylmder, name erased, de Clercq Catalogue, 210, 113 .....0csneseresnssvaveses 23 
a7 a) Cylingertot Wisari, berlingoV AGS is eek We cue fe a ne Sais eee -tareene Aaa atte amie = = 73) 
38. Cylinder‘of Gudea, de Clercq Catalogue, 84 0... 0.6 pees ee ee we epee ees sega aus 24 
39. Cylinder of Gudea, J. Pierpont Morgan Library ........2. 00. eee eee ee eee eee enes Ve seuh 24: 
394. Cylinder of Urlama, Heuzey, «*Sceau de Goudéa,”’ fig. 1.01... 0... cece ee eee eee eee 24. 
394. Cylinder of Gudea, Heuzey, ‘«Sceau de Goudéa,”’ fig. 6 0.0.6.2. eee cece eee nese eens 24 
40. Cylinder of Burnaburiash, Metropolitan Museum ....... 6.6.60 e ee eee eee cece tees 24 
40a. Cylinder of Kurigalzu, Ménant, Pierres Gravées, I, fig. 124........ 0 see eee eee eee eee 24 
41. Cylinder of Sakkanaku, Lajard, CultedesMithra, xX XX LV Sar Seana tpt verte cartatecce es « 24. 
414. Cylinder of Kurigalzu, Dieulafoy, L’ Acropole de Suse, No. 340..... 6... sees eee 24 
42. Cylinder of Urzana, Museum of The Hague .......... 0. eee ee eee eee eee eee eens 25 
43. Cylinder of Darius, British Museum. .... 1... 0-0 e cece eee e cece eee teen eee eens 26 
44. Impression of Sargon cylinder on tablet, Heuzey, Découvertes en Chaldée, p. 281 .......... 26 
Acwoame as above; pr zOle es. «sie are alee wie els stenn ele tednicmaietata ieee Pee, heels seals Iho a ‘as 26 
AO. Sane as ADOVes Pa 293-55 ce cele eles He oe = tiene ee womens oiew ome ohale © miniete tn so siaisialiegs 59 - 26 
47. Impression of Sargon cylinder on tablet, copied by Dr. Banks from Bismya.............--.. 26 
ASP Gdthe aS aDOVE Heh ee ee cae we uly eG as as ate neds whe os msunin elite trans alorwinidlg sates dy oe 26 
49. Impression of Naram-Sin cylinder on tablet, Heuzey, Découvertes en Chaldées 22340. o5 27 
GO. Same as above, po205. >... sess Dees vee ses ee alw ola aie elle wen mime Rea tiatle ae teste ees 27 


Vill 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


50a. Impression of Naram-Sin cylinder on tablet, Heuzey, Découvertes en Chaldée, p. 286 ..... ry 
51. Impression of Dungi' cylinder on tablet belonging to W. H.\Ward. 2.22.02 .s5-5s 22 es ae 27 
514. Impression of Dungi cylinder on tablet, Heuzey, Découvertes, p. 308 .....-..--.se seers 27 
514. Impression of Dungi cylinder on tablet belonging to W. H. Ward ........... 0c cece eee 28 
52; Same a3 :abOVe:...:. «| cmene es Oe once oa eens Bt «oA ene CREE Ott ee ae ee ce res 28 
52a. Impression of Gimil-Sin cylinder on tablet, Heuzey, Découvertes, p. 309.......++..00e 28 
S28 Same astaboves ps3 10 scene tise x crevice gts arson tatatte oleae ee ee en 28 
53 -abas-reliefLeuzey,, Antiquites, Archeolt de Chaldée, p..83 (ee. acnt «ey re eee ne nee 30 
54. Bas-relief, University of Pennsylvania, Babylonian Expedition, 1, XVI, 87 .............-. 30 
§ 5. Same-as above $8 ey Say ck seam Set vee m Smee Rte cle, eine Svea ge ame ea ea 30 
56.,Vase of Entemena, Pleuzey,, Decouvertes, ple.14 95447015. nomic, eee ee 30 
67. Cylinder,? British (Museum 105 .Gu © ake a Aetecr cee eit es oe ee ale le cee ae ee 31 
£8.\Cylinder, Berlin) VAZ 13 Ware a ercicssetcteoe cial die eu) oor al she nic! cla de, Se en ae Ane 31 
59. Cylinder,, |.’ PierponteMorgan Library eo. ncm aos sate © ie once eee es tne ee a1 
Oa. Cylinders Louvres A O25 70m) ner edrme nee Gal akoe me oan ete eh eae diate ee eoue a1 
61.) Cylinder: from ja Cast 127yhe .\s.0i0:8%- "one ow te tclote = «Udly Ue Gre Weiler ole epeh chante ais aie tatal sf onan Ome ecuncie 31 
62, Cylinder,” University of Pennsylvania, No. $008). ....... 0. ss-\00 sss) os eee Seen eee a2 
6za. Cylinder, St.) Petersbarg,~ The Plermitage icy ace) ss eS ees Ce Se e  aee e 32 
63 «Cylinder: J. PierpontsMorgan Library Qrie. eiaes oes ere 2 Se es oe eee a2 
647 Cylinder, de Clercq’ Catalogue, No. (12 melissa ete teite foarte Gia Set ee rey ee enrene een 32 
65 PF oameras abover NOT OF ie nts oe arecedens ope soishells stele suet tate tetmians cde sea cers een aae a2 
66.) Cylinder: Metropolitan: Museum: oo )..a,:csiee Gosia ane ctopneeeerecs ie opetentt Cleon enenetes ariel ameter ry 
672 Cylinder,® Beri, aV A S'S Occ o dcteta a etreycre ccd hic echt tele, & apt acts let ee ae cence ae ne ee 33 
O85 Cylinder, fromi sa cast oi ile. .ts otsrclalaaitherey +, n> be sue: o/euelaicceke eae Ste Anema ne ee ais eau teeter 33 
69: Cylinder, Metropolitan: Museum ..ois) sisitc4 olslin's 5 sesbecehn ae on S00 0h ee Oe ee 33 
FOR CYlinder MLOUVITE Waal 6 whe nee! oxab 905) 21 alana) ns ondiapeunsabey scale Rin Wiky sre atan sone Ciel Me aetna em cReeh ete eh) 
712 Cylinder) bierpont Morgan Library 2h oe oa) toc. a Rs te ee ee 34. 
72: Cylinder, Jcord Southesk?s: Collection; (Q 129) ca cht. = saterste crantely Reentry kt ence 34 
74., bas-reliel, -Eieuzey,, Cat. ‘des\Antiquités Chaldéenes,\p. 93). sa <eeee = ener eee 34 
TAe MAING AS ADOVE) D.oO Fe a cc co ers wo Wik ou: oon or eye aa eRe RUIN cies rook s Tone eh ok 34 
WS Sain as ADOVE; | P- 8 EOF vx wv uls beta ovecah hes ghettos eee Opa hace tte Sits iiae nee ee 35 
FGaSAMEe ds ADOVES Del TOT Gb sw 5 wliecw alow citel coh ioral en oh wi eres letral cree! Sele/ eb of ode dee ee cee eee 35 
97 BCyindert {rowed Casts id «tiie, oven tien sete, ie) oe mics,» Pig a RE ety ateuiatc SE ahha hegre ae er ee 36 
Toe Cylinder, Berm a VA20 70. sae ve Pt gest Uiai's eayee. «tg WAR, Mebeprel Als pilebe teh deeb aland Cle tes eee ate 36 
79. Cylinder, Berlin, VAGU? os Case coe inion ease sho 64 + 4 SE eerie) oer Re re 36 
SouCylinder; Bibliothéque: Nationale,;71Gc tana 42 nos co ee ee ce 36 
81. Cylinder, Metropolitan: Museum %. 22.02... 0): . (cee pageant fie as ay cee ea eee 36 
B2e-Sameas above: Cewdaie cava culpa mins 6 o's Uyeletele Ws Mo Mepaue eiaein se « ctaiPaere eared ee emeeee a7 
8 3.1Game as above’: dicks. ae tre Mir anea..S 2 ass @RQRietters a aeeeeets Segue Gee eee en eee a7 
BAe Oame'as abOVE fy 5h 4. su we es 5-5 iw Pee one cals MUU S SteNEOS + tema sles olde olen re ner ee: meen 37 
85a Cylinder,* BibliothéquesNationales)724 2715 \. Gamo 5 etn cia Remini: yn peng ene eee a7 
SO. Same-as above; 725 Gi ese x elenabtete che penne gheve ws SiG oes ee sige sie: geen a ee ou) 
37. Cylinder, «Metropolitan: Musettm(iyat-icuie eis oh ge ie! acs coe ae aceite tee ee 37 
3G. Cylinder, Berlin; sVAS30.5 20 ocx aon tele oe es the See eg ee a7 
897. Cylinder,"Ball,. Light fromthe Hast,, p.21 51 emo. chee aierceat ose. eee ere 38 
go. Cylinder, | Metropolitan. Museums". . 29), occas totes ieteid-t ors. arts totals. «of pee 38 
gt. Cylinder,* Bibliotheque .Nationale,r7z 7am... amiaeee i witch soniye, ee 38 
gz. Cylinder,» Metropolitan Museum =)... Ws... ete ies ale Pe RR Se oe Patni es 38 
o3.2Cylinder,-Louvre;-AO 1902, (L285 ue. ab, eter ® coset auctenee the >. idea eee ne eee 38 
94.4 Cylinder, Metropolitan: Museum’: .g-1-r- cetc qe isted ee st eek Ps utsabast- «uate ee eee ee 38 
gs. Cylinder;#].»Vierpont: Morgan Iaibrary eng me epmeiet is ao acle eet oe) oe ceed 38 
96. {Same:as above. sion 3 ssw Os tve we laiels Dis eee aE ge Sar cchtoty cca at tet ee 39 
o7 aCylinder,* Louvre; AO1160°.068 254 ci0 -pueenes cs) oes © Ret tot oe ae ee et 39 
98. Cylinders Dat Hayes2ns Sets Walser Mar rattan tao ae SW itear ara oor etre Hye ade eee 39 
99., Cylinder,. Hlenzey, Découvertes.pl030,04 5. we a ake oe eevee ne ee 39 
too. Cylinder,< Berlin§ VA21 EZ. 5 scan Oye nucks eins wie Rie rls oie a oer Gacy iat et ae ee 39 
Tor..Cylinder,: from ax paper/impression G74 2a te aan ciliate egsiecleg ts. oct eee eee 39 
To2). Cylinder «Louvre, sA O23 320m cits, tee inane ayes Oe cers act an cert ct eee 40 
103. Cylinder, Bibliothequer Nationale 07.67 a. Vian sre. te tes tere ete ei hia Be ee 40 
fo4s Cylinder,” Metropolitan Museum .0 ie aise .n. nmr uae ee eee sen. ae 40 
Log.@ cylinder, J..Pierponts Morgan Labraty 7 a erent tet tts nct ee es 41 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ix 


TOUsMoyviincct moe lerCQuGardlOogie azn: Wennt i. aisi ica ee Ae ae A een ee Ce 41 
Tg mule yer rc ca der cag Catalogue yes, mea gte tui cdc ys Toy hag ate wash san ee A eS AS ate 41 
TOO MMC VUNG emN DEMIN a AZO G2R ie ine da ss seen Ole ered pM a a Actiiah on, BR eee cig 41 
TOSdmu punder eMischer anda iecermani,. NO, 4.9.24 tas). & adj acne os eee A. 42 
LOO mM vunGer weremias pUageAltembestamnent, e.c2, 436.7... <a. Mamet een aka aie. 42 
LP OoMa Vier a LGekt ACC SPM neM Ee 8d 045 icc, jcc bin ie ee ene) mel ce 2 ok 43 
Taos viinder el ajardyaculte de Mithragpliy Life. 8.2. osc k « A< mw UNI OME Ak oo Slee che ee 43 
TMS VOC ETs MOEILISHGMVINISCULIT: wempere Met ore ese. %. 6. a5 Gas canis are eA i, A4 
ee ee VICE @) em ier ponte Vi OreanelADrary 2.c.,29. days wig ate SEARS 5 he: ae cee RS Sed 44 
false sWOaIN CLAS ADOV Er ule era i ists Pele AA oe Ss cpg roms ie We, Sa Me et RS SR eee ees 44 
PRA ra VOUS Bil c(eopial tan VI SUN Rate tes! ls ci cs alc an ous «3. a SEU Ke se eaa eee Sees ee ae 44 
Bs MLV IUCeh me COUNTS BAC) 2A Ol per mb imerne Mar Tia ly sve ast enaphen Cadi alee et eit ae hee Oe een ate 45 
TLD) OVALE eI OMbse ECAC ay i MN EEE a ese aks ena wlceietnce. «dk dee \ kalo ede cMeabeea Pe 45 
Pip aC VIC er mV Lethe pa litanu lvl uscuin gen rie ike tye Yous «Audi eis axercte ev ssne 88 ne sy ROO ce REE 45 
FTO vin cer st Deri sav OF One RMORMPE RS oie ay < nico syeheecs ues atetless suse cio: ARTS GLa ee ae 45 
PNG) Ske Vanier wiv CCrODOlitati IVI USeLINN wane aye ty oe a), 2le tanec clk Pl eee areata, Ao RO RS 45 
Bee OVID? Pe ritis ie VA USCUI mete ae ewee tae seat cee ssc a SNe sends av hava dels hclkc Ah OO ae MOE 46 
Peg meV INcer MGOUVEO sR VEIN DL LO cbse gery. hee cetera: oe, cite ares soe ah ow ches Peay Gi Mes 46 
Bod & Oy inden garOmMma spa per iM pression mee nt Abst 5 etic otece era's She avaas ifsc. arte Sion © aed, ae ee 46 
os me Coy et ms niverslt weet enms Vala Mell Tit ces. ca geo Aig. inia''civ fe sie'e pasties, HCPC ae OPIS oaks 46 
V2 CaS VIC CY @OTiLish av) UscUIn ewww Mime ese e cs soa heke ie cao ho ahele clas'ale le a ee ane ERE 46 
E25 Mauinicet aD IDUOLRE UCB NAMONAIC EAS A Src aincs si idere Mears ccc. sronr atc ei oae ts are eS 47 
V2 bane ylinder wLordesoutiesk st OL eCHON yey ste. cose o) al eucdg's oe oie naon AAO aA Se tae sR 47 
P27 tev ncler Biv etropaiitanie Viuseuin mcm reree ia > ats: o cis iccacetts. cv apts hid aieteios sae anne ees 48 
Poo ee VANGek Der eel A Due weR re eet Perc tae, Gec tn A eel bok Pd. I ve eke Blole RG oats cftee © 5 AR ee is 49 
Aco we VAIN EP MD MILISIDMIVI USCUTU ste tate tterse eto otras cts rs hd ee nas scr e nis 0 ela ane re ke oite alte Yaa Re, 49 
Be Od BUY der ao pen clers Dito im CAELeTIMItAGG emer na). 2%. scene atte Ghee tc > oth eee MATE IS Gua nates 49 
FO VD Cen DCE meV ioN O IDM in Ute Mak task dooce. ails. a0 slevsl <rsial bony PLUMES, « Reo en a Men 49 
Rel yuicer s sOUViress CLOW My IN. GAZ Games tyres, 6 (sve we br oanisiese, ceases Wao riends Se els FER enero pa 50 
isa am Cyiincery GU niversity OlsbeIisyiVvallasad OOF a ttea rec. oy ci< sss 28 eee a 9 ote Aelita Ree 50 
Hos mec Vilnen mi enzey mV vies Achalc Cons alg a O)enret. «14 create sett als cul tel gicr ate pan eee okay ee eee 50 
Me Ap Covlincerss British lV useuinl oe ayes perry retence oie) s x's «oie vito lone ele oath nla, hatal ote eds hots a eee 50 
UG & OAIDE NAS ADOV Cee ee A Pin ME SGC r colle ce o's) Sich od i de Slis Soph a. es a Mee a aI are Mtn ae otro EEE te 50 
it om mpressionbomiantableroclompingetOn Wry UW ates am bs davies mre ate alg tals Re se wen: ame ronmns Yat 51 
Veco we Cylinder me Umiversitypos aC MCACO ws tg cter at ole Pena ov puwio. ass tag alee uate ele ie Breede, Sgaa inmate ate 51 
130s iGylinder, Erocecdings society of biblical Arechzology,+Feb., 1892, fig. 7 040i) acum e- = 53 
i Oma inderacenClercd: Catalogucrm bo tina cn: suoisiao «fe a 4h os. syatekelteisueth 29h eto MRO aly, otal 53 
(Gow Cviinder OhnelaiechsRichter, Kypros, CLI 340). 3 cache. oe nm was +s Weenie ee ame neal 53 
ra ormeCviinderiden( loneq: Catalogues. t 26m e aia a. esa coy oe a/8 ouale: abs she W\cya lvoe. ete ORS Me noeBAS as 54 
1300 eC vincder @ DiplotbequegNatondles. 7.20 a. «cs solely, cute ole « sas 0s 0) hie ee Miclats Rise haat Reals > 54 
awed vader scene lero cataloguesat 7 Oates oh. ct ate ane te elt aves > oh, oa iain seamen eee te Ty se 54 
1 3 ge oat cee ssaDOV et SOs meta Ne et, Fin ASS od ig. 6 sw Fo wd ens. «eR one hel © eRe deme aly ao 54 
Wee omelenor ty | Wereneae 4 BW EP PIS oo. Vi On oly Cae een Ee Re ane Men Mca Pet rad: oe eho ce ee 54 
Poy Ze OaIMeras ADOVC tal OUP7) Maret Memes cee 6 (ohe fag) «4, os toys. eel hohe oe isi see Nels 55 
14 Coe ylncer ms iDMotnequiewN ANOnAIC £8.59 095 y) atya sake «im sia ele one e ora aa ha eee ere 9 55 
1384. Proceedings Society of Biblical Archeology, Feb., 1892, fig. 6..............2.0000- tess 
1g SU MPOATICT aS ADOVE MT cee e Mate flac se ges chic ca 2s 5m ces Go ened Maan rames oe= icien oey Mcyeia, 3) 55 
12 © CM OAUACHASEALIOV.CS TIGam Teche mie Ree te Als kein a sso. ©, soe ciel cacti =o oben Puente seme itet tee Rcd aio 56 
(aon ay liuder a Gipiotheques Nationale, AO2 ¢ ges. teats » scr ule ge imitates 2 Beles) wee ol 56 
Mg a AINC 08) ADOVE RO 2AM mes rae ests cise, b's ec 4 ha elrrn oon Pine ahaa rant ree elves inh 8 Sie 56 
Pom Cy LMOer sa Deng \ A504 Stalag es Missi aioe et alee > ool Meer p enn ital Geeta trtebart 5 57 
1394. Cylinder, Proceedings Society of Biblical Archeology, Feb., 1892, fig. §.............05 7 
ig Ov moatiesastabovce mats) ee ey nts. ve aos siy\se 9 os ola'G cheilee Guptsdvi t-te haGiehnes Pate creat kos ds 57 
TA Ouse Cylinder, MBerinye ety Zant mis ica Gols + eninls wake os het soe Meetings ios ereMeifeta or 5 cttiede ists lets) 5a 
T40aeylinderstlewrey, Vi ythes: Chaldéens, p. 85%). Reenter S59. ieee chi oie dyes 57 
140) Cynder, eBibliotheque Nationale, 707, 1. 2% -e aieuiea omdelel artis eye eit ahs ie ae eel « Rg. 
140¢, Bas-relief, Maspero, Mission Scient. en Perse, II, p. 109..... +4. se eceeeneecsenrenes 58 
i 4 ten ylinders British: Miseuinls ti. 5 agile. cin «ore: nee aie mote remitey shaigeE ny he lOhebe| Yeabesm oh oP elareela we < 59 
1414. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum. ..... 066.0. cee eee eect ee eee eee ee eee 59 
1414. Cylinder, de Clercq Catalogue, 41... 01. eee e ee cece ee tee eee eee e teen ee nee eenee 60 


141¢. Heuzey, Armoires Chald., p. 14, fig Ace amen Wiss Site thee, ate. 3 60 


Xx INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


1414. Cylinder, de. Clercq Catalogue, 435... 0 ev hems ett en ae een eee net 60 
142.2: Sameyas above, 4.5 x cite teacae  okytesen. o en okatancliny ae clays ene en ne ae 61 
143. Cylinder, ) Lordisouthesk’s Collections: O89 nim, =. ye sees eieis ie nee eet ot ree Qe seis es 61 
taain Cylinder, uThe Hague soak. cri w ocean og siete area teses ante Weems eta) eee ee 61 
14:6.9Cylinder, Berlin, \VA63.9...5 0 2.cc> ove « saa ceteris tated te traeiote che rake ae eaet ciate iri ee reais 61 
146. Cylinder,.J.. Pierpont Morgan iLibrary. fc) wie ac) 6 apoes cee og ao ane ee te 61 
147.. Cylinder, British: Museum fics si cee «ease elevates aie + Aalto ann ene ine ea se a 62 
148: Cylinder, ,|.Pierpont (Morgan: Library <6 ..caceee oie st 2 ec ee cee nee 62 
t4g9., Cylinder; belonging to: Rev. J..Bu, Niesw.. ape eis cue ch xrstete- 2 aerate ete Ce etc canted ete 62 
150..Cylinder,s Metropolitan) Museum (2 2. 2. ot. 2 paein ao sie ieee eee ti ee a ee 62 
roi. Cylinder; Lajard; ph XU (62. e.Sesaehsre tosis as, «ass pee ot asi ero ee ene aa 62 
152.. Cylinder belonging ‘to Me Schlumberger i \.2.. 20. <o.+leuehe ys cleanse tee een tien eee eet 62 
153.,Cylinder, Cullimore, Oriental Cylinders, 170. 20.0 .- «o> cbe ee ee 62 
154 Cylinder, Louvres 62a oe wisns: svsciethe cols cogd 5 Ge iet wey ks Gan ete te cee me 63 
rss. ,Cylinder,, Berlin, VAGA3 228 soc.5 2.0 00: Qe stags gh tnievelp ou «ANCE meme Seen Oe aon een eee 63 
156. Cylinder, de Clercq Cataloging, 46 2350 ire che ce. oi eyns ole cgay ane eer nner 64 
re7. Same as NO. 4.4504 «sor ladigin. dis nie. ol auw ante abe) up ln ove 6. unde tile mana <a fees Aee e 64 
1§'8,<Same.as Noy 4 76a <scclene seie/oiece ula Fane! oh suede wie) 606 opey ed cian ay Alo eot eC een ae On eee eee 64 
19. Cylinder, British, Museum 5% 321)» cite oo serene. Se eee EOS 
160; Cylinder, «Berlin, VA63 855 202.9 .so-.-<g.-1 0 8c. lt 0 sn Ore ee 66 
t61. Cylmder, Sir Henry Peek. No.3 oi. cpetieeh< ge es yee Sans neg ene 66 
162.° Cylinder) Louvre; AOZ404 Foe. cc ciliecni tere es =) chess essai ie eaten se Rete ee eat tec ce 66 
163. Cylinder, British Museum i053. «scien Qaiocy, oa ce wists © Peat aint eee Reema el miei le area 66 
164. Cylinder, de Clercq: Catalogue, 48. 00... <..2.4.0 oto m+ 4) 5 eens eee en, nee De 66 
165. Cylinder, Lajard,« Culte:de:Mithray XV 503) -:) crete ye tere uel eta a 66 
LOG. Same as above, 2.565 eialeqecshaqace ale’ ocoustlveue eiecehs. eageid ut tm ne cece en ctheeel leat aren et eI aera 66 
167. Cylinder belonging to W. Hi Wards. ..5. 105); csereueeis sine ae 67 
168. Cylinder, British. Museum © oie s)e aor ete ee opuee, ote oe ee ee ee 67 
169. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum’ > 7.2.5 a2. i, 24: ayn = eee) sige ee 67 
170. Cylinder, from:a paper impression... 3,5. --« «ea anes gees retarted 67 
171. Cylinder, "University of Pennsylvania, No.) 50625 cae cee een ae ee 68 
172. Cylinder; froma paper impression <inve< io u o eecee oi  ee 68 
173.. Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale, 403 2270 jee ..tyere.< cues ues ae Sarat 68 
i74. Cylinder, Lajard, Culteide: Mithra, XIII. 49. oe... eee ee eee 68 
175, Cylinder, Metropolitan; Museum 22.2... = © cs oo <= ce rete eee 68 
176.. Cylinder, Dieulafoy 1 Acropole de Suseifig- a 14.95; ay ie ee ee 68 
177. Cylinder,’ Metropolitan Museum a 0. Joes a) ccs ke eee ee ee 69 
178. Cylinder,: Bibliotheque Nationale, 903...» a stan oe eee er 69 
179. Cylinder, Metropolitan, Museum. 3. 2 oto. o's 6 oe ee 69 
180,.Cylinder, source: unrecorded 92.6. ./%5 5 «neq a enajiepst oo ay sect teeny he Reet ene fear 69 
181, Cylinder, Ohnefalsch-Richter, Kypros text,.p..33,.8¢. U1 ee eee ee 69 
ESz2 soylinder, .Dritishs Viuseutn cent ee eee eee PE ee ess re Bee 70 
183. Same as above: -.i42. 5 5 oe uote eels «pein din viata tele @ tue tara e cue Et Meee ae ea ee 70 
184.+Cylinder, Metropolitan, Museum. 3.2.9. savas cen gas ee eee eer 7O 
1855 Game AS: ADOVE 4.2.5 a wge'e 4 Sarginnes dies eee Sty n/a, S| olla aie oe went kc Re ge 70 
186.) Cylinder, Ménant, Glyptique, 15%. 290 a5 ce. = tienssh er ee ee 70 
187.Cylinder, dei Clercq;Catalogue; §4 92 peter = oun cree sree pede lane one coe ie 70 
1874.,.Cylinder:from a ‘Gast 070.0605 7 ae aie wlace taney tes rane at oat ee ane ee as 
1875..Cylinder, Metropolitan, Museum 2. ait. ny tral oy tee oer ieee ea 71 
188..Cylinder, de. Sarzec; Deécouvertes, pler3Os tos 5 orien ete eee tte 72 
189. Cylinder, Metropolitan, Museum, 220.2i. ong tie ea ere ee a en eee ee 72 
190, Same. as. abovers 55. asks abavars daa au cee GRUNGE REM ailolcas Pats On cnpne an tie ts Mest are) a mee eee 72 
rOissLajard,,Culte.de: Mithra, ple Log¢c. oo. slo naemietd fete ae eee rec ee 72 
192, Cylinder;. University of Pennsylyaniay 107 1% oo): ac hae eee ee en eee 72 
1924.) Cylinder, St. Petersbute,s Lhe Hermitage. ci... ai. aii eee eer ere 8 
193~ Cylinder, -Lajard; (Culre de; Mithra, pli slul,” 9g). eet al eee eset eee 73 
194.¢Cylinder; from a (Cast fs aiy de eis (n 0s & 6, © eeu Mer coh este) Cae iri ote fe wos ae eae 73 
196. Cylinder, :J.4Pierpont; Morgan: Library 22 2 aio 2 hee ota ee me 
196.:Same.as aboves. Ge. ack wiv wiedegin te ate eed 6 © Gio Se Gee ote Caen ae Aire te ge pees Rey Cer eRe 74 
197; Cylinder, dé, Clercq (Catalogue, 4.5 275 oo. s oe 6 crs co tec nene eae ee oe 74 


198 Same: Aas ADOVE; OO wis ssittetassdeile © abe Aub cw cata jes. 00 6 ae Fe etna oneal eee etete en ae ene oe 74 


199. 
200. 
ZOT: 
ZO2e 
203. 
204. 
ZCbe 
206. 
207% 
208. 
209. 
ZO’ 
PB ii 
PN. 
Zi3° 
2A. 
Zea 
210% 
217. 
218. 
210. 
2208 
220% 
IVPSD. 
222. 
224. 
pay ase 
220, 
227 
228K 
220. 
230. 
PM Big 
2aZs 
Zan. 
234. 
235% 
236. 
23g. 
238. 
239. 
240. 
241. 
ZAee 
243. 
244. 
pa 
246. 
247. 
248. 
249. 
ZEO: 
251. 
2514. 
ree 
2630 
20a: 
Zeer 
ZO. 
257. 
258. 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Xl 

Cylinders uajard Culterde Mithray plc XX. Vi07 Ses Stents atone ate PL ke els 74 
Coy HELE pLSOUV ey Lag’ 2 meme ts 2K gitaa nk Ie Rok 5, Gina e eee ies, PORTA LR Connie 74 
Cyiinclerss| ee rietponte Morgane. brary ee v1 ey eee ee OM PEI oes si Mele +S 
Cylinder amherstiColiege’ eeesein Oe suse Ag A 2S a ee SIE. SU ee) ola 2 De, as 
Cyliaderslicuzcy Revue Archéologique,. Vij: palgo, ¢ paeerre seen etme. aot via 
Cylinders avictropotitan Wviuseuni seen 2 5 Fees see oes es eee deat, co Bias, 77 
Cylinder British Viuseum ts o.facr si eniec. eee xk oe or eee UH at. suena ces fl 
(Sylindlerssirond a icasGtemstmerse O Poteet Mahe ai ie Wis Fike ang inte ig lg hin ean Sues Me at ne af) 
Sylmar ra LeOuvE Cee rer are ee oR STE acre cis Wha RRP ag OR pe Se ce Wie eh ae nity 
Cylinders Louvre mod 20 Mens CEMA itn) badly Boye ee ale ORNS Ue Te ee ee eee 78 
Cylinders Metropolicans Vinseuni i, 1%, ‘oat 40 6 ae ee ee ee Bree ey 78 
Cylinder.» Vienna Museum, Cullimore, Oriental. Cylinders; 14 7au2 <i oe een eet = 78 
Cylinder, eiletropolitamwl usetm 400% 405 Ge. aos thc fateh polopsevar ieee lyons heCoec eens See Im 78 
COVTINCEF REAL VATO SEES © ZUM. tet MRT 0 oN s8k <0, t, ch hod wae Pe deTE eee) elect et em Meee 79 
Cylmdermbeoneime stor Re ear VL CMV atin ets. cote, icush ace en Pe eee ae eet ee 79 
Cylinder wLouv rer 1) 2 i Ween, toc. 2. 5 Ok w Siar a Re, AI ieee 80 
Cyinderselvietropolitan ivi nseiny ees. .t tr. sas ce speek Panels Sts eee ner cteys 80 
Cylinderncde Ciercas@ ataloguey: G27 hot". seals Gs cgesad alesse aio fee ere = ee ere me ree 81 
Cylinders Marquistotr Lorne Collection secs es fa... o/ dnae oe aes at ees ne Ae 81 
Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum .............. AL Ae io yr, 2 RATE 81 
ylides malate ClicescerViithta, AV IIL 123355 Was cle eae i eee een ere 81 
Gylinders University or Pennsylvania, Somerville Collection...19. + 4-2: se ee toe 81 
Cynder § Bering V A303 Fae ctn Pe oe wt a et oa SS Peete ek Ree eae cae emetan Gc 82 
Gylinder nde oarzecs mL ECOUVETIES 6 Dl. 930,57 br c., us a appt oe Renee ot eee ee 82 
Cylinder,. Mctropolitany Museum tse ay 3:4 4,4...) Fork Se niin hare eae Ree te 82 
DAME As ADOV Ee ene eR N Nae ee eas alk Savin ca iwlare ERR Os GRUNER GR MMB Eare ta. 82 
Cylinders | serpont Morgan Wabrary 20.4.0 e0% Sie ta hits oe apa 2 eee ao 82 
Cylidere Berlin VA ZU OG Memes ate ss 2 air a's wv hin vas sialie aac ET MeN op a RO Me rs 82 
Cymer es Dipnorwedues Nationale, e753 20715 21.0.0... pcan enone neste fone tan Mee eee yale 83 
Cylinder impression trom tablet belonging toW. EH. Ward. 2 session sisetneds tae tere 83 
Samer s ADOVE stn eect he At cee site eens SINE Gas oles Ses he Sem Eng. SPOUGREN Sen Heda teat sta 83 
Cylinders) Metropolitan, Iviuseuin Sinn we. a2) «2% < otetersdes setenyelene) haber eet eared ew 83 
Gylinders mpression trom tablet» belonging to W..H.) Wards).4)00) Gye. mn a etek 83 
Cy lniders Vietropolitan sv Usewiniwes ty oe 65's ok r-rae hte sac ae Pe choi goer Mee Nel 84 
Cyundere |e tictpontlviorzan™) dbrary tin. wi. 2a". oils estas ee. Seeeiste oer edsdalete «b= Manetapieiatctin 84 
Cylinder, impression on tablet belonging to W. H. Ward... 0.1... . cere eee ee eee seco ees 84 
Cylinder belonging to M Schlumberger!” «24 e22 1.0. Vaiss he ows ele levere cued geen ustoe sina lane > 84 
Cylinders: University of Pennsylvania W205 a we. ew Se a coal o oie wis spate act we) shel Pai alate chap 84 
Gyiindere BeriitgaV 22009 eae, hehe A= oes So 8 ewe Grebe sys odes aoleien oie ool Meuaa ote, Mayas Urs 84 
Crlitider,) Metropolitan: Museum 2) oi).5 2%... sealers Meee ie ts las eet ei meals ae 84 
Cylinder, trommia cast se ne re et Tie he ses sas wa vl cit Ba ately «eeu inte Meitan hemegate Le «+ 84 
Cylinder, Bibliothéque Nationale, 343 2.00. 256 eee elle Soe ee we ee es Raw cle ee 84 
Cylinder belonging to W. Harding Smith... . 00.2.0... eee cece eee eee ete ences 85 
Cylinders Louvre, ACZ460 ovate ee cs oie ss eel he wees oy, way elans a ore Renal mnapelinieca ahs las 85 
Bas-relief, de Sarzec, Découvertes, pl. 25, fig. § 21.0.0 see e eee ee eee eee e ne eee eee 85 
Grider 9 BritisnelMuseumi ey. eas cist fs oes «os tate Me ns wap ee eg eg setae ne Per ests 
Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum .......... 00s cece s scence eect t eens ence ee ceeens 88 
Sammie as ADOVE Pere Tee Bieta etre LZ "olnetraln wero sci clcy state eile ails sens, (ets palo Anal i ae 89 
Samieras above meets ems ct Metre os a, Flake latioliats lane lage aiondietnmaue the aedeaisteis arise diay Eye ves 89 
Cylindersaviusce Guimet See. e os 6 ein ela ately ole ie's les em deesale a Gquman mma ele aini sce Aloe aie « 89 
Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum ........ 0. eee eee tree eee eee nee e ee eee teen eens 89 
ATCT ASTADOVOM TE Sone eran ao oie nisl cisions swat etal oD srs itl sr mmOMEataMe es REALS oils) ©, whahenasye: Ge 89 
SAE TAs ta DOVE tee rte nea Sis as Sd. Solr tata ete ah al ab etree meMes Gem uehalstalefa =) sieelatiee o's go 
Cylinder, St. Petersburg, The Hermitage. .... 0... 6. sete e cette teen e tenet eee ees go 

Cylmderaline: Llaguce 5 cee. 0 en ho ale oie nut eybin tue nh are = AM aere «aaah ai go 
Cylinder, British Museum ¢ 2... 0. 260-1520 6s os be ee he see rain na Se eee e ees go 
Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale, 702... 11... see e eee cence eee eee teenies go 
Cylinder, British Museum .........--- eee cece cece eee eee terete ene enens go 
Cylinder, The Hague. t-02 00. c sec ce ern vec eb eae me em eee ce rece siete es go 
Cylinder, Ménant, Pierres Gravées, I, p. 123... 000 ee cee eee teen eee eee eee eee aes go 
Cylinder, British Museum ....... 0... eee eee e eee eee e eee eee n eee ee nee eee nee e eens gt 


Xil 


259. 
260. 
261. 
202. 
263. 
264. 
20K. 
266. 
209. 
268, 
269. 
270; 
2704. 
Poh 
272. 
ee 
274, 
275; 
276. 
pyar 
278. 
270. 
280. 
Zoe 
282. 
283. 
284. 
285. 
286. 
287. 
288. 
289. 
290. 
291. 
202. 
293. 
294. 
295. 
296. 
297. 
298. 
299. 
300. 
3004. 
3004. 
301, 
202. 


393+ 


3034. 


304. 
305. 
306. 
307. 
308. 
309. 
210; 
Bal 
Bz. 
ct Otc 
314. 
ase 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Cylinder ssM enant,;Dierres: Graveess) p.. 1 2b eee oie oe ee ee gl 
Cylinders: Metropolitans Museum (0/23 pia ects. oo oc). eine ne are eee gl 
Cylinder, de; Morgan; Mission,Scientifique,, p, 250, fie .e7icat senator cee ee ee enn gl 
Cylinder, “Metropolitan, Museum): 2200.4 gam yw sce a ee ee ee eee gt 
Cylinder, |iePierpont Wlorgan:] ibrary.o\ tees aise hoarse aan yt eee ne dn en gI 
Cylinder; Uajard 5 Gulte desMithraypl XXX VEL 20s ee eee ee gl 
Cylinder," Ji: Pierpont: Morgans Labrary)2 cose e ts os a Soccer g2 
Cylinder, Berlin, "V.A2 Ta Gisicam cts os 6 ane aides Sia) hee qual a Oh hee oe ee g2 
Cylinder, «University ol: Pennsylyania; 1082)......0 ce bee hei ee os te ee g2 
Cylinder, W # Harding Smith ie fs vee lisse sx fe kitchen gz 
Pyx belonging to: Metropolitan Muséeuin 5 a.0.. 52% ..<> «11 Ay aieenetn a ee g2 
Cylinders) Metropolitan’ Museuminen, cet piste oo tareey ce ae eee a ec 96 
Same, aS "BDOVE Wire: cictere ey Seah oy she ea pale lselts\ 4) sn. ok 9 tre Sine ks an a ose ee ‘ay 90 
DAMS US ADVE Win adele s a) gcelers nie elites aece, Soy pao) O nikal alee aie Me Me es cea 97 
Cylinder, BibliothequeSINationale, 72.1.0)... 2. Ge. ae. . cepe pe ee ae ee 97 
Cylinder; Metropolitan’ Miseum (05. 2.5 11 5 acct ok 9 eee sey 97 
Same as aDOve sia rere. fivelece dts re wiles ols loss eceiv. Samt Diet pay te kek een Me a ea ed en rea 97 
Cylinder aliouvres A O 2 3°73 ie ce <a. ay'e 5 > ons erode tm Se ee a eee 97 
Cylinder; Metropolitan” Museum (055 o5.5 ccs « «0:4 2c ays cae en ee 97 
Cylinder, British Museum 2 fo <0 vi 6 aie © rope) eee nee ee 98 
Same ds ADOVES sere 6 eee os © ole 4-06 we a. 0.6) Whe ekMe lines POR) Cuan oar ae nega 98 
Sameras above 0 eet cate a aye Raa dy oo lat es Ona i en i sD ee 98 
Cylinder; sir: Henry: Peek Collection, 1.2 (0.0). ceaeet eee ee ee 98 
Cylinder;) Metropolitan ye Museum 2.) ye. 5 = oe es eee a ee ere ee 98 
Cylinders Dewsarzee, Découvertes, XXX Diy 14 eee ar err ane ee eo ee 98 
Cylinder; Metropolitan’ Musetrm yo. iu-c' «fete ie oa sleade eee Era eer eae ene re 99 
Same 2s above deh wx. ate (e's ew le « a ip Oo aise ele hes chp rn ck aye eM eR thse Renee AP rac ere 99 
Cylinder, (louvres, AO22 30. pis sa ssty ais. ate eee) = nese Ran ol ott oar a 99 
Cylinder, Fleuzey sOrigines Orientaless ps5 103 tae ee tet 99 
Cylinder}: [7s Pierpont Morgan, Collection (2.0, aietcnetn sige oe ee ee 99 
Cylinder ide sSarzec,: Découyertes; XXX C02 7a 16 teins utente ee 99 
Cylinder;sdeClereq Catalogues) 8.39225 000 cinta apa cues) eae ane a 100 
Cylinder,*Louvre,/ MINB II 60 220i tea eel aires a are ee cere ee ee 100 
Cylinder;\M etropolitans Musevinn cy Gate nets. va sich ake at een ht cae ee ee 102 
Cylinder, J. (Pierpont: Morgan Library). 2) ota a. > Ors ee oe eee 103 
Cylinder,s Metropolitan’ Museum < anette ta oe ot ae ee 103 
Cylinder, Berlin, VAZ4a SAS ve. «soap gcmeys en hanno teh et eee Nee hee cee 104 
Cylinder, (Berlin VAS 4 12g case die oyets eS eer mad ha ues «: AAR se iy See ce rea ete 104 
Cylinder,” Bibliotheque Nationale,’ 7220.) rats Wels aera eel aka ieee 105 
Cylinder, St# Petersburg,aT he Hermitage? aye ao ony ae ee ee ee 105 
Cylinder, ‘Metropolitan )Museumay 2). S\tapersetane srt bit tt oh Ramee cas tise a cae ee 105 
Cylinder, Cullimore, Oriental Cylinders, 14.700 amiss ak, rere ie a eee ec oe er 105 
Cylinders: British; Museum (0) caivc cs ere jeheye, cues 9.6 sie eee ae ee eee 105 
Cylinder, St.Petersburg; ) he: tlermitape 32) 5 agen eee ree 105 
Same’as above. |. :clscc'Livieteie « Gushensyenereia a wins Aan neni te Meat azaae cerca Nee ML Sess eee eee 106 
Cylinder, Lajard, Cultede*Mithras. Ec 20e, nui. cet ats tcc e sree eee sec 108 
Cylinder, Berlin, VAG68 tgs 555 shegetias a cste eel esto) eae iene es see ar ee 109 
Cylinder,-de: Clereq Catalogue, 12 Iya. aurora oats nace tee tine ae te tare ee 109 
Cylinder; British Museums 9 (Seeu§:2.2) anges osc) eter een ene ee eee 109 
Cylinder, Berlin, < VAGQ 7: ais iiieks ccsetouer moj ate ane toaclen et, cine GABW Miata see Maca renee eee 110 
Cylinder The? Hague 0 ieciias of tes aerntai ee ors sake! nok Garr nena ee ete Ill 
Oylinder, “British: Museum? icsas ya a <larecuisys, | oe ato pos she pe econ ee r ea eeer iy Wa 
Cylinder © Bibliotheque sNationaless 73 2 yas stimu ep.) < ecaes tendee oer ce eee ee ee 
Cylinder,” Metropolitan: Miaseumi: 2). )4-c a op «a days eae eee ene 112 
Cylinder, Louvre; WAO 2374 wnat sa eeuetebehe <del s, oie taal anges) Stee eee eee eee 112 
Bas-relief:of Abu ‘Habba ts o/o's ete aye a wactenet ce hohe cueies OU ieee ae ee aie 
Cylinder #Metropolitans Museum (.giio ux...) ae are oe oe re nee ee eee Ei2 
Cylinder {de Clercq Catalogues$120 nasa ora «oe ieee eet ee ene ne ne ee 113 
CylinderseM etropolitan Mises orc tee wr cr ieee te ee er ee Ti 
Cylinders de: Clercq: Catalogue; o 13's ricer a tees create: tetera ete ete eet ea ae 113 
Cylinder Berliny VA 27.2670 isa rene arora aie ole cs ols anole oa eee ee 113 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. X11 


pf Oey under tye Licrponteorpant Library iyirn. «7/0 sch panes ee), athe cic eeesrom ile ce 114 
Bo iri UNC erm etropolitainm VIUSCUIN ars a ap es was Pou cote See arctan cue ed ee 114 
pie. eyuinders bats. CrlrecdemMathra, LAV, Asia ocho. ok Badin cue Saude. cov cos ees 114 
gio, Cylindersbelonging*tazRevaBenjamin Labaree.. «oc in1. ocusgs hos acarssceedcscatsen 114 
OZ Oruccy oder moritis iy Viuseli ame ees ae gna, ae Ge ER ee ee ean ge ke ae. 114 
B27 ienyinuers Delon gin aetOml Ord COULD ES Hs Wes xiinds cue 'ctel sed cove eet hs hae Le es he 114 
322. Statuette of human-headed bull, Heuzey, Cat. des Ant. Chald., p. 269...... ...ceeeeee 115 
Rzo at vEncer, Diblothequcm Nationale #268. --... 4, . a5 44 een code ke sees 116 
Godan oy BCA me arvana VseuI gal 2 OI trt sete iw els ORL ao GPR no ee bead, 116 
Behe Oyu er abibuotiequer Nalonalest3 4 Tx vik <i «ss 2 ohes oth tan oh whimsical, Rate 116 
Re Oot Ue yaincer, aVLECTODON tat MVEUSEUIN fae vars os sics Dad sia Gu eu see ad oe ore ee ie tee 116 
BOP Dalheras ADOV Er MORE Ate ahd 9 onthe cls ibcen e e6Q5) w 4 Sin ee GRUB aah brat GA Me GOW oc cin oe 116 
ha Sa gUVlNcermcenlcrcghWatalogues,1OS «vay oe s Maks fond pak ce Gk Go aaa as cas ees 116 
Be Or A yimael, elcrenGop Ost PUM vetlel cease nate Gc cn eva ate. ae eae anc ee 116 
BRO me villider, wlamrietpone IViOreanLabrar yee e nc. ¢ oh ec caret ae 2 Ore ak Rion Ln ae eae L17 
BG ee SOS G ras c DOVE Wer MAMORU AUN ao Tose eo oc win Sictaaw spt as Grav nound oe abadogeean sole Ueto aes ay? 
B32 Cylbder, ofemhctersburp mune liermitage os... 04 o davue dines us ad td. ee 117 
Bora) dca, suetropautanpVinscumige ns Serle ys luke. Uk. Gc ok oa ee eee ee ee ey 
Goa acy uncer mrierpontyVorgan dlibrary oe... cass do es ae Mads «| gee ee ae Oe 117 
Baba ey inden ca Clercq \ atalopne sl O7 Mena fk. ours wish abs 4s al vasiah: een tae 117 
BoO mC uuden mer ClcrCQRGatalocuesss 4 OLv inch i. at. 4. ale unten pe ies oa En aie 117 
Bay assy unelermmclonping tOnVinson) WV Alia Clark os aid leds x ass 4 Ghauy tht coud eed ee a ee ie 
Ba Brey Wicerge) ame icf PONtM VL Oran sl Ubraly lass < weesig os wo eeacts ues uh als ca RU ee moe ae 118 
Ba eatey, incletye Oritis meV, ike meenre ametnMs oi S)s bs, os ia susis¥angss Sia oleae eek Oh ome cea) 118 
BA Ore Gyn er MON auCasty ee Mer BRET LAU 6405 es Sa vale ceed Ades &, ceneueecge Me ee tae ea 118 
A Wage Vita elmac cuCeECGE Atal opie eld 3 ya 8 aw < nid RAPS sgh GR Vie aude Mu, ge Rooke eae aie 118 
BAe Wey MDGCEPLOUNIC 4A OL) 90 Wepre Ot nc Pie ave ne «wisi ots see Sunsets Agogo va BN ee ee, eee 118 
aere Oy Tidey woe eT Cou ata lOGie ged 0 epgterg) Wie Gv a.'e (n.d okey oes Bcc tane a wl cin eg ee ere 118 
Be A ROATILCEAS tA DON Opel OOM mmm Ment selec 5 Uk Ps (5 chi By dea’ Aiapeaacni ae oEaad ta as tu oe conte RS oe 119 
BAS AIG aera DOV Cre LO Za eteeity Me peaches fre A te aie Sen 5 8 cocoon ees lin AW eh sa ae Re cra 119 
BAD gURIMeras ca DOVCsmT (MMMM Festa No Gyrak 5s ss edelcels, shwtv. Shinya sR reac cugta Ne to cca eee 119 
BAA ROY HNC CHR CCE LAGU Cire ee Met Ee Ge ea oe vin get os euohete Um ees beter ee ree 119 
BAS ep asirolicl wll ezey ME CaUwANGmOMaAlGs Den 13O 42 «01 sans, neatly riepsnaicvhe se eemeNe. ae ee oie ey 121 
BHO ey cee, saan CultendeniVitthra ab Jy1 figs ye 5 ui5.31 ge rcaateaesleie bs las cs or apenas as 123 
PRO MU yullder sp pipiotneques Nationale, $700 9.60. <u << pas’ >) <a << songs rinse tee alt ee eee es 123 
Bist eS Ger BL NV ef sity, Oli RICA OS wed sted che a Ags lesa eat cyan Ee hale ee ete as 123 
Way der g) mr letponts VLOrganm iDrary. seo... << «Aamir cod pad iin eae Ms, Sues heden « 124 
Biers me ylndetew alana eC ulcrde sVLiCata eX V LID 552 1) cyte treaty toons sys ay ahr, Nisa cee enue) aera ee 124 
By ac ey litider wiv elropolitatm VETS UI Amie Ge. oct 9) 5 aihed sesh cnigalcarfeiplnlies wie: -rinath ca useage et ek ate « 124 
S55 che VOM Cl ML SOUUT Caen Bnieanee, Cente No the tard ss Net nude epthe a ty, vide! spotasenditchaty wean aur ae agg he oltess 124 
ae OaGylinder, jderoarzecwm@m ccouvertes, piig3 Oe figs. 6 00.2.0 tn pata sie Ge porte ay eee 125 
BSi7aay undcr.a | medet porta vlorgantLabrary cmavtt\ che. oak: vialonaghes le siya sh «a cr cpa sade cea ot 125 
PIS S moaieea Se ADOVE © UME cielo td WR a, obo cherw Aen, 5/00 ns Sh islaanieinal ana PU CS, Sip tak oMaminey -p aie enone ah 125 
Bib ep alte BASE ADOV Ck yey nS MMC Ieh sot ot) ce | 5 eee gee: whi susnate, 4/0 6. 405 waa apo Se ead ecard 125 
PO Ose CY MECC CUVEE SAO T OO Tae tri aan fae otep al tay, svoj in, an holt lopeatis: Ele Mees hele Aaa ia 126 
Bot mAsylincer pbeloneing moe ever Se CITMMNCIIMAN oo), deve rchs metas 001 © ebnioyeecuensle aero ous Se eX) 
BOZO y ndenoa Dts el USCUI area etre REIN ois clati ge ailey ech ane shel cbne, ean ne Meera ener a nlea MM ares E27, 
gG7 aC ylindcrsgi erropoltammN LUSCUE Paris. 5 oie, ve GUM soos Ae acai Re ea os ances arly 127 
AGA aC y under.) ee nicr ponce vi Oreany LADTary fei aise. nay acetate teed et ae cee eke eta tna bale 127 
Roc syunder sbipuothedic sNalonalie: 71S... os. snr sedan cet cual Re eee ame aa. 0 oa 127 
BOG mOvinder Minebterponte lorpaneADEary eu. dei tnols, Sra ed tel re ie ieee re ate a ok El oes 128 
BOC VIEL mG erin a 020 4 linens cc CIORC at Aree 8 dato on, cha oh aac ie eke Baas lel sas. ara 9 128 
BES (OSA ails 415 TEN seg (Or LIC ENCR, 917 5 Sanu nen Rene ready OOo le <li yal lb Come eme nae 128 
BoSae@ yinccturdenzey maces dc Croudcdsehey Ly soe cig raid ee hea ne fot are aha 128 
BOSbmCy indertsmbicrpont: Morgan Library. 6 oes sceicca, only oe erage ee ee see aia wees 129 
GOST my ascmiicuzey moceausce (aoudeas lip, . a pets acca i grein eee are iste ane on 129 
BGGambae tele eeomivieversoumerien und oemiten, pl. 0 V Litem cetera kal 129 
368¢. Persian'tile belonging to W. H. Ward 2.2... 00. sinned ee gnc eet ee tee tent aee 129 
368/. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library ....... 6.6 cece cece teen eee e eee 129 
36g. sCylinder,: Louvre, AO 233055 at os 6 6 nde cine cin igs Hol eatin wan ties = eee ea ee ia 
370. Cylinder, from a paper impression ... 6... e ee eee ee eee tee rene cee e tent ene ee neee 32 


XIV INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


373. Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale,"Q3 15. shee oe cet aetna ee tener Paz 
$72, Cylinders’ froma’casty. os: pace. co een recreate ee ce ee eee ee 132 
373. Cylinders Berlin S VAGI2 590 acre te these eee ane errr cee Ree Se nee een 133 
374. Cylinder “Metropolitan Museums. 2-500 cer oe ete cae tre 133 
375. Cylinders-Amherst* College 0 vig: cn ucheree a sa Soe coe cre ene tee ete eee en 133 
376.2 MetropolitatsM useanit, ir cout ote) late coos ois tute Seah eaa cle ee tee net te 133 
g77. Cylinder, BerlingV A249 i tcu cas ccts-s «en's nore epere it ttt ene ele ener anette mentee eeet oT erates 134 
378. Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale, 333 20.0 cn ceveecte «ene aye ok ate ae ee 134 
3709. Cylinder, ‘Metropolitan’ Museum actin. fatness ts ele elec 2 et eer ees er 134 
430. Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale,“94.6% cicada. ott mee ane neeee eee i 
351. Cylinder, de' Clercq (Catalogue, 14.00% ce tra ais isie con hee ne eee een eee ew 
332. Cylinder, Proceedings'Soc.- Bibl’ Archy, Feb. 21502, 11¢-17 eee ee ee 135 
293, Cylinder, Bibliotheque: Nationale,+720 Diss ans. re ee 135 
384. American Daily Consular! Reports;=No. 1763029)... ere ee gee ee 136 
RBG. Sane as above. i. 2s cies eile ce ate cuae ie ekere et ethene tae the eae mes een 136 
390.° Cylinder, ‘De ‘Sarzec;) Déconvertes, p28 7) cep ri eet 136 
237. Cylinder, Ball, Light from the) Kast; pj 15encrsns: eee ae rene ee eee 136 
383.. Cylinder, British. Museunis.6 90. 2.00 clas cie arn eee ee ern eens ts ee nea enti, Beene nee 138 
299. Cylinder, The Hague. -% tho sans ue capone ae aes ten eee nt ee, ee 139 
390.' Cylinder, British! Museum, ose! ote akan tee nen Che cat ee eee ate ee 140 
301, Cylinder.) De Sarzec, Découvertes; pliizo Orr, a iia. 1 3 en tee eee ae eee 144 
392. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum.) 25 222.0 cre cqert es ene tect een 144 
393. Cylinder, Sim Henry Peek, No! 18092010. 5 ct. cen ene oe ee 144 
z04. Cylinder,’ British Museum. 3). 3 2: wears spe cee tei © Se eet re eee eee ee en 144 
395. Cylinder, Lord Southesk a o's ci. tears peste eee nt nee ee nt ee 145 
306. Cylinder, Lajard; ‘Culte de: Mithra,\XL1 a5. es See are ere oe eee eee eee 145 
397., Cylinder, “Louvre, AQ 24095) 0. as tiene ey pee eee ee ee 147 
398. Cylinder Louvre i o25o0 eS die oie sue tee oes | nen, en ae 147 
399. Same as above... cee he Ge eee eters oe eter te tones oe Pe een oth, ete ae ee 149 
400." Cylinder, J? Pierpont Morgan; Library 2. eee iat en ee nee 150 
401. Cylinder, Bibliotheque: Nationale, 789) 2750-75505 c 0 pins i ee ye eee ee ay eee 152 
402. Cylinder; ‘British, Museum isc cas so hteemels ens ee oe ee eee me ee 152 
403. Cylinder, de Clercq Catalogue, 33% 31. ete- oes eit oe cere ae tt nee een Ligz 
404, Cylinder,’ Ménant, Pierres Gravees, 1,7p.. 100m. 00 et ee eer ee eee eRe 
405. Cylinder, 2 Pierpont Morgan Library gers bee eee eg et 153 
406. Statuette, Heuzey> Origines Orientales pS ners ee eee oe ate ae 154 
407. Cylinder, Rich; Second? Memoit, figss 10-7 aces a. eee ie te eee, 155 
408. Cylinder, British Museum 7% «a. 021 serene tenel so ate eee eine ee eee 155 
409. Cylinder, J. Pierpont) Morgan ‘Library <5) fs <0 te 5 fete ne 155 
410. Cylinder, Louvre AQ239712% «sons enters nc nlee ores on ore eet Pe ee, ee 155 
41%, Cylinder, Louvre; MINB1i69. 2 oi ole ne es siege ee eee ieee Oe eee 156 
412. Cylinder, Kings Religion of; Babylonia, pal 320.0 ecu eee fee eer en, 156 
413. Bas-relief, de’ Morgan, Mission Scientifique en Perse s1V, p..161 meee one ee ee eee iy 
414. ‘Cylinder, British Museum 207.05 «cc's prota ean te ee re ee gen ee ee 158 
415-. Cylinder, Lord. Southesk’ 2.4), <5 2) ha tee to eee ee ete, ee ee 158 
416. Cylinder, British Museum, 3 cr eae aad aay AR Be ne eR eae ava ate oe et RE, SOE agers 158 
AL7, Same'as above.’ . iis so. lee aie, ates aleiy MPa note oodles eee Une Shae te eee eer 158 
418. Cylinder, Metropolitan ’Museum:. 2 eye 2s site ee i cen rt eee eee 159 
4184. Cylinder, St. Petersburg, The Hermitage) anya c re onts nencee 159 
419. Bas-relief, de Sarzec;) Decouvertes, p.)2094. 6) ns te et eee 159 
A20. Bronze statuette, Heuzey,. Origines; ply tX Foe) cee ane ee et eee ete 159 
Az¥. Cylinder) Heuzey, Origities, p.0 49 a2. .c hice ae renee rar te eee ie een 160 
422. Cylinder, de ‘Clereq Catalogues 219 2). 2s aw cto. pre tee ae ere eee 161 
423. Cylindet, Metropolitan; Musentny..2 9 20s 2 re es ns ee ee 161 
A244 Same a8 Above lI. . Sa casw soa id te acl old Seco eck oath See aie gRne CEE ee ee aT are eect 161 
425. Samié’as above (as ees, hg co cle sions 4 santas *a le clap oc n amiten etna sre Peon TnE a. Nett vem aan 161 
426. Same as above soe is ss oe nas wd hres eee ene ee ee ne 161 
427. Cylinder, J) Pierpont: Morgan, Library 25 (isola oe eee 161 
428.: Cylinder, Metropolitan Museumitnc@ .\ fic suiste ei ctereeeen nt eenenettr etc wrayer 161 
429. Cylinder, J. Pierpont’ Morgan) Library. 67 rm, eee ete km ete 162 


430. Same.as*above Macs oi Lk cen teat ood «Male eae ee ey eee ee 162 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XV 


470 Gvunccrdcsiercqi Catalogue, 253 \teaa: \ a ide Mie eis Bt eM eet. dei phar 162 
fe ee MS sa I ADOV EN 5 Sa 0ts Pom Ser i  URe ai tg SR NN oh. aot EE fee eet 162 
433. Figure of Zirbanit, de Morgan, Délégation en Perse, VIII, p. 89 .......-.0seuceveeees 162 
ae betseuss einach,) VacessPeints, 0 9p.1289 0k on oy oh ee Wy eee, eee oe ee 163 
435. Statue of Marduk, Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, II, pl. 52..........00.eececeeeeee 163 
AGG PCy iogen | brtisha inser gee isin barn Maecit, Wite oR MER e eR EM | bP kn er 164 
Aa pee eer wiv LefTOpONCaneVIUsCNIN A chat es wc He EME eh dope six cee me Oi ach a 165 
Aspe ovindcr si elietponte Morgan: Library aa .v.a4 « to qs dames yah Ons Se ee Os 165 
A Om ey NICE, gr OMS Castigo in Stee se I A Si eee Rea wien ay Me eee aA ee 165 
aac Cynder. jaar outa VlOrgean LADrary occ st ah sti Oo ete ee ee i ee 165 
Aad eee yet g DIItei VLUGCURY weer i. arch sae Ln ee eae oe ON ee ay ie Done ag she 165 
ee AON aT TOD UE TET Ys he @.@, GA UR ya ee a CIO RNR AR ie OT oi ie at aN 165 
A Agee Mcei. Diitish sViMSCUN) e. ct0o 1h, sick 5 esa vic 0. eye ee ee Re oe aE me 166 
Bare CNN Ct uene Clea AC aralogiiel $ Ju, 1. kn ac ee ee ee ne er oe 166 
Be Ger yer mag lard se lal Ven Come a erl. hind: 31 (ag «sae Ree ee a sn 166 
AAO Ny UNGer Srila Vineeutie oi, reer (ee aaa «ae c4siak bere epee ee a eR on ie 167 
#A joey nderss Umiversicy oletennsylvania, SOl2.... .../..4. Gana eee oe ae ae LE Re 167 
AA Boe Oy MNGeL se sariitsMMVINISCU Meera cre cs a ve cuscs cant % 15 « ahareos aOR ER eee cae ee 167 
BOs soa Ue ASEADOV CE peri etree 0s eerste ed ly a 4 a 5k a en eed 167 
ahr Cy indet ss ajatanl dl Vee DG Bereta eo. tere, «. 4s; «x aad wc ae eden Mahe oe ae 167 
$0 eC vlinder ss DritichwiVinseuin @pprste sai seye ied 20 acc ance eed Ae geod ee ee 167 
Pig CSS CHROME SIRE Luh el by Aid, 2 SE RET ek sei eR PER SDS UU) RS Ges KOR 168 
Ags SAIC ASA DOVED wer ele sey kes 2. 84 5 Lr naes a4 de eee eR Rs Oe cue. Aen 169 
As AV nGet mM) ae icrpont Vi Oral: LADTary. 2. isc c)..0 aus ee ae ce ace 169 
ARTO MOaINC LAS ROVE MAU meee CUO y 6 Goid 05) 90a Ghaheiaile ha oi Gen eR Ree aes RRS MR ea tape abe cate 169 
Ast y und cram Vietropoli tan SiViMseumn:, 11s), «01 (as » 4.» oncratnmere ee erage teem eat be aces “169 
AGA a atlic RS A DOV CHM ME teeing! sets os, ols. an aa's aatsie aos Ae eterna e 169 
AG Ad ge OalMe sass AVC Mee ceammer RUE Of Who deaf ae oon’ ane, Ce ce Heap Oe ee en «cask a ae 169 
ASO MOAI 12 S300 Vik me Nala 5 t's 0) 4 oi e.s, ts. 0.6.4. 45, 2, Shae foe aR a, eA oe 169 
AS Ae MOA CL ASS ADOVG Dent Sentai SRT Sd «Hh s kG Spa she «Pic acl ppt pee RUE, ok eee ae oho ae 169 
ecpeen Ce HTC chee Britis Lava NSeUliba eat ret ac. «cur Sess% + ,- 400 oh 1s, ccm War, ies ake eRe ee id 
EW Sha ES ACEI hele Oe. gino oO Ae a oh ram Rewer Pa eee ee ey a le ey AE 171 
A Gigs ov Cet RIromaaena Dera DECESION a4 leis, vue) « jae, - ss cc sise te Oe eae eee a 171 
Won CoC neh eV CLrODO CAM MVLUSCUID 0. ao. c css «Vatican, 9)2 fy elas Sasa AN age ete a Gre 172 
AO ey linden e ait RNA selene i che da '8 3 a6, atta pecs! sash code ee gh ee Re i og 172 
Aer ey IDCs OME ARCA FENN Cet aes Sets 0 ee 40s 5) 5: Aa af veape tdig Gran susie aly Ae eee ae ie 
AO lomo ylincer. binlothequcm NAlOnalegh7.00 i ac. + «4 5c, Antes ey Oop Radke eee ee eae ite 
OZ SAIN Coes mn DOV Cl milo Re cBomee i iia (iy) 0s aus. +03. + dunpa's'« Sinegevonsesean deat Ne Sect quar alls) aan Ope ae eee A ae ig72 
fog wey inger. cillimore gO pchtal Cylinders, 21 1Q 5. 52... . musa yeht seen Saeed es 172 
ADP mod PuASea DOU Crm) 2a Meta veri es Gees as cic e Cee ect irid gin «kk 3 oh tee a a 172 
ZO soa cay under British. Mi Wseui gs mtr trite fos 5,4 yun sages wag bas cea een OE ah ie eck a 173 
AOGr ey iicer eIViGttODe tall VIUSEUIT ie nten ee ihre « c:c0 oii Bah wc anes eae eo beeen ORR ee 173 
CeIn er aL OU as dg CASt re Suen tafe tie. bo 4a: =, Saree oh) shran sR adie any ngs eee ee a 174 
AO oo CAINE LAS EA DOG Mmm aoa Pearce she e's aie 8s 6) epee sto ee ee 174 
OOS OAMICLOS A NOV Ceuta ad (ARG alee fas uieicl ona. 0) ,.e cha «tel eA ee ee a Ee 174 
Wy Onan Wnder a bisc 1eteands WacdeMManyty eS pin). ewe) om, < we atl orepe yiae ae aie) Ah cast Riera 
Rod wey inder pial erpOnie Ny Orgal weabrat yar. |. ta, » > itera, here a ees nt ees Tee 174 
a7 0 jepiterm Dolicnenns shoschcl, Lexicons., Col. 1104 92. ..5'. «sgucuentihe ee ee gelesidiety ied ee 175 
ie soa Gy ner mo ratis na VIUSCU Ie rrers sre eee wea, 3 elmo 0 ard i bere eh a nat ac Gate 176 
iy see ey linder. se uiniversitvaolstenmsylvania, 1.019. nef ten he tare ela eel a eave Wiehe eee 176 
AAPG NING Crs CCRC LCCC Ig OBUC A ZO4 9 ciel. ie elas als oie «nl ahh ahaa ere Ce Ate L a ci 77, 
Agee (Cylinders iicolsky slap eesse des Cylindres, p. 50-0) 25/5 cae ops ade ae seta a ante ag ie 
aoc wider mceuG@lercy iC afalooue 220.0 conta ane pee eee eats 177 
eee wiiders: Dribising Vi Useline raga ccs seats «ste oes hee ie) eo ee oh cei on eek 77, 
a7 Skevlinder, «Cullimores: Oriental Cylinderss: 13:2 vege ee heeds rice ae ete eae « Pirie ieee Sil Se 
A 7OrnG Winder Vi ero polttam VLNSeUM ep tial se eco ie eee a cise 178 
480. Cylinder, British Museum ...........-+---+-. +06. an Baa as SORE oat Rem Me Ny 2 wae oe 178 
ABM Sac as, ADOV Gagner eke see Soha) gions seg ages oh ee a cee eR ds aot Roc 178 
482. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library 2... oo 0c 0 ee eee nie Oe ee eG + ence se 178 
483. Cylinder, de Clercq Catalogue, 202.6 65605 ee eee tei cee herein sg tinde ee 178 


ABA Samana s ADOVOLNS sieges csc ponl Sede fo oy 60> gn Fein escogese) Soares ie epee <o ca skeen ant ean rte oe 180 


XVI 


485. 
486. 
487. 
488. 
489. 
490: 
40%" 
aes 
to: 
494 
495- 
496. 
497: 
498. 


499. 
500. 


gol. 
502. 
5024. 
$03; 
504. 
505. 
506. 
507. 
508. 
509. 
510. 
5s 
512. 
503: 
514. 
EUG: 
516. 
fe 
518. 
519. 
520. 
521. 
B22 
523. 
524. 
525 
526. 
eave: 
e239. 
529. 
530: 
Se ats 
ee 
533- 
534+ 
535° 
536. 
537: 


5374. 


538. 
539. 
540. 
541. 
542. 
543- 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Cylinder,’ Metropolitan sMuseums, ya. ecole dete ct oe en eee ee ee mee 180 
Cylinder; Meénant;) Pierres: Gravees, 1, pons Tan on.) eee ee 180 
Cylinder, Metropolitan -Museum™, 1. -oktee urs 1 ene te ae, enemas eee 180 
Samesas’ aboverwats eon, k Maen ca Pattee akira hic” SOS Bt a ed ee tte ok gee nc neon 180 
Cylmder,; J>}Picrpont: Viorgan: Gibratyisniaee ee. ce oe rete ee ee rere eee 180 
Cylinder = Metropolitan sivinsennved.etuj ites ee ee eee ees teen ohare ee 180 
Cylinder’ dessarzec, wD écouvertes, XXX; Tiassa ee Ree eee ene 181 
Cylinder; | * Pierponts Morgan; library; os. <.Pte et eee een eee 
Cylinder Musée Coulmets ss Tran mi, hth tis ea ciel cle cash Meieeete Tate ace ene ge en ee ee 181 
Cylinder | ePierpont: Morgan: Labrary: t20)./g.0a- ns che tee eee ee eee 181 
Cylinder from san Cast Seca attic decane On ciclo lost chalets coer ana echt ene ene 181 
Cylinder, Metropolitan (Museum iiitwite'~'s diie eae ater ae Sen ee rer eee 182 
Cylinder, f.) Pierpont! Morgan | Librarysy.). <0) soso acghaic kt i eee eens ete a 182 
Cylinder; Metropolitan-Museumiys 2) atv cicsie one ot el x eo ee ee 182 
Cylinders {*.Pierpont Morgan Library (ic siah< teccce 0s) oho ett nett ee re 182 
Gylinder;) Dieulafoy, Li’ Acropole de Suse, 1p... 4305 fig.933- 7.1 0a er er 182 
Cylinder; St. Petersburg,» [he Hermitage). i202. sere erent ne ete eee oe 182 
Cylinder,“ Metropolitan: Museum 2.0... sais ts 2 te ote aise ns ee ee 183 
Sameras above 26s scsis eis /s cies ele stead eu atiore wbe ate tahat ns Beret ene an een ne 183 
DAME: AS ADOVE = Si iacece aio! oie i ele: Sie! Nils. o olsal alg atlas alatiallaleot c) oth Marlee en ee eet en 183 
Cylinder, J Pierpont’ Morgan Library 02). tee 183 
Cylinder: Harvard Miuseuin 15/52. o/c! pie /a tend ene nist chee outs Bere ene ee 183 
Cylinder,*|*Pierpont- Morgan: Labraty 2°... et ch ee ee 183 
Cylinder, Berlin VAS $4... 5p os .:2!a star. setae Wi alcksts, hein ees see eet te 183 
Same’as above, VAG63 4. = o's. 5 ov le sete ene ee ee eee eee ee 183 
Shrine from-Latium, Chantre, Cappadoce,"p..90, Ngo82 1 oe ee en 183 
Same as‘above, ps90, fig. 83. walcs'~ salou ete rents tent etc ae feted en new ee ee 183 
[There is no 511.] 
Cylinder; Metropolitan Museum’. Sractsete states eer ae eee 184 
Cylinder, \M énant,,Pierresi Gravées,-1,.p.7 1939 fig-a 24m.) te al ee eee 184 
Same. as. above; fig. (1.23 wes Pale, 2~ a sce iss S Ueetasw ke eee det vata as rohs Gt a ennae aCe an ok amen 184 
Cylinder, de:Clercq: Catalogue, 1257's s1: ac. « aie stster ain ch etreh et octal uct! ce eee ee 185 
Cylinder, Metropolitan ‘Museum 0... i <2 oe ence ee es ee 185 
Cylinder, Princeton? Museums vitals ste ne oe oi eae che en ee ere 185 
Cylinder, ‘Metropolitan: Museviniae sige oof fe «ooo scr Siete ee tates 186 
[There is no 519. | 
Cylinder, ‘de Clercq: Catalogues’ 262) 0500). gan.teputsr ste Sieny Seen ate Tne, ee 186 
Cylinder, Callimoress Oriental’ Cylinders .6:3 tec tarce sare tse eee ee 186 
Cylinder;-J. Pierpont- Morgans library. 22.) ene eee 186 
Same’as above si- Par dia fe ccstaest et west gh lee slip! cues te! ne lesion ARS ot epee eo Aan 187 
Cylinder, de: Clercq: Catalogues 26.4). 2...) th tats sti tens etn eee ye Renee eee egy ne 187 
Cylinder, Bibliotheque’. Nationale; 14.48 No ote acetate ee Pet 187 
Cylinder,’ British Museum W072 Va2-c eisai ane nice aeeraet ier een ee eee 187 
Cylinder, de, Clercq, Catalogues 2617 iri) aa o).) het ncn aah tte 187 
Cylinder, Metropolitan® Museum tii), do. eye sito resis ence 187 
Cylinder; ‘British Museum (7) i.0g 03) <.o52 gia site ce eee emi oe tee reg ee 188 
Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nattonale, "776 0).2 2 an. . sen ee see tn 188 
Cylinder, ‘Chicago Field" Museum: S; ¥ 52a ge toe = eee eee ene a 188 
Cylinder, Metropolitan "Museum tate tye ances seers et ict oe ee ee a 189 
Cylinder; Lajard) Culte de Mithra;oG V.ILI5 +S \lee ome eee ee eevee a gee ne 189 
Cylinder,’ de. Glereq, Catalogue,: 26600) aeons Ato eee et aeen n ee e 189 
Cylinder, British: Museum. <6. 0.0 ster cheusoette ota) ona ae reer et ee vo 189 
Cylinder) Mirs:) Hamilton (Rowe s*. reset 20's). ats) aan acne ee eee 190 
Cylinder; de Clereq Catalogues’2 545 f0 75 Socks ss a) cn cure guee ee tenn 0 ee 190 
Cylinder,»| :Pierpont: Morgan« Library 72. se sere ere 190 
Cylinder, Metropolitan: Museum (2). .jvae ga ancts ey cent te ee oir oc 191 
Cylinder, Dieulatoy, Ib? Acropolede Suse) fig.63'4.0 taint ee re Igl 
Cylinder, de: Clercq: Catalopuesi25 3 oy.0cens des cists eet cn tektites sonic ie eevee ne een 191 
Cylinder, ‘Bibliotheque; Nationale, 4.54.00). arse ee pee ee eee eee Igl 
Cylinder, de Clereq Catalogues 2S 8 fo x0. jstn ict sale’ ew narra veer ie nant ot eer 191 
Same ‘as above 9392.0. ce sw ale slo 6 ideln sie one esi ehct ctstel thot ate colat cteCane oatmeal 192 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XVII 


544. Impression of cylinder on tablet, Ménant, Pierres Gravées, II, p. 132........eceeeeeees 193 
Bp yom esas OV ems PME 4 uhm. Septal Ae OM ck Wee OR Oa Ll nl ac 193 
Wa Om Onin passADOV em DARI; Ora nie ianay ge ly bags, ERM Cl een ER, © bol ahect 193 
Op eee CH SEG WOVE SORE 2O sa cect wakes WANG Win aia | Ga Seg oR rh task LANE. ioe 193 
548. Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale, 957 ter, Ménant, Pierres Gravées, II, Dit 3 7s eteastnes 193 
549. Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale, 957 ter, Lajard, Culte de Mithra, XXXIX, dierent arnt: 194 
SOs tma ICRA AOC RUA NLA ORO MENG tts mica ane wa ates Fas eRe RR Rein dake, ci cheery. 194 
bod. cylinder voteae ctersburgsm Lhe, Flermitages «a a.. dey ee weeds bie Aton sla - uduords oe 194 
551. Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de Mithra, LIT, Adnd ar ahs Seenrdpe near SE LEP AN Ae cee Tas Seren hes ha LA 194 
poe punactyen Te opoltamsViuceurne...c ge.cs, just). Lan Ae fe ee a gk 194 
go We We VM CLE Tem TItis Mm VITISEN Il eam ie ssl tess save ener ental n Eee ees tae eh vc 194 
RGA DAI GAs ACV CE Sein Ae wsic Ut sie G44 Soo diy toh, @ iach oan 0 ER pa Re ca Bete, 194 
Db ee cer eOMY MICAS En cs 26 Ny ones baw. 'y os Og SS eR elit 195 
Bs Com Wen mC ODU tay IV USEUTI Gicy 4.) eles shen See eee ae te Rc 2a 195 
Sih aie Acta DOVCR tere, mrctcteten ohn Ciiiels! oboe ba obo SRT pb Lae ols WUE Ea ped ah 195 
po ocuey undergece: Glercqucatalogue:3 77 97... wu as craGhsis 4 sats eae is aie SA ER act Se cco 195 
By ean E Sb ETICtS Hh; LVIUSCUIN Cmte Age, rece i 4. she wb anausli Penne Re ER eee Pes, oa 196 
5 Cova Cylinder Ab ibiathequer Nationale) 6.50%, ¢ iia ba's » 0 «adhe: seRtOG ene os oe Noa eee t N 196 
Ror mw y Under ecuoarzccem Decouvertes. sla .g0. 761) 2 , «& 1 aace iin oe pees ee 196 
mB ea yer se PLATA VANISCUNY, 41 LOS lk sits «ay tie a! ¢ we bis «Sane ay eae ete 196 
563. Impression’ of cylinder on tablet belonging to W. H. Ward is ssaesetinsansept, tess ons 197 
FO4, bas-relief, seayard svlonuments of Nineveh, II, pl. 5°...e2e «dan mpunt ue pom eee 197 
BOs ane Vumder. givietropoliansMuseuie..', {42 fg... 5 <u des ooh oes eRe (Reames ae et 197 
5 OO @WAIMEL AS ALO VC gmpMMyOARY TRCN ys 55 Sas 2 5 wre 9's epee bo ae me els. Ae cde re 199 
567. Cylinder,.o.) Williams, Am. Journ. of Archeology, Il, pl. Vy fig.18 soem eu aaa oc 199 
FOs.@O yagcer, woiblothequem Nationdles: 63 2 ..4.<s:0 ib.2 «ores foe tie OE @ ce mee cs 199 
POO Cy Mache ce Cnet ca Catalogues. 33.1... % bax tals che aoslea coy os hee Urge ace areas as Gaunt 199 
hy Ont yachts jana eC ulterdenMithra GX XV, 6 cc «ese 6 0 cin'y «Mee Cue oatiei aan emia ties oe oamntns 199 
eguaie yimdel aivlenOpelitan eIVInseunitar pace. < s-ycs dun soa ove due cone HMA Gkokahe tapas tanec 200 
iT Dew Oat NCEaS ALON CRIM Mmm Marie 1o. « ticle lsat, Sv desl pd ss Wy od Riba le ole t ERE <ul: eae 200 
C7 ey MET ROLE LETT COR pal States Cet io.cn 4 eivicie cy odo imc CORSE Caan Secor ea Pata 200 
Ri ony IN Cet may Path OPOUaT PIVIMBEUIN Ess. | Wie Wid wile Sie webiesenr ees hse we Puede eee emenianeie Gast: 200 
Ryne Vilikictaclon 2iipsOaViemidarding omithsJceh o.caueu wir ciegecwne is Ghee wie ae anne mtaregs eyatnahl 201 
BGO eC Viner MisOHVrem I LG Gla ar sti eis cs an. hue dete Walks wie Cems coe epee Goctan ame 201 
Wa fee ner ucenG ereg a aralogNe, 64 9270. ne ou oil au Molvouep ee Mo ohne ed aeeamoe aan 201 
i Oe ey uct me nierpont lViorgati Labrary rig. ey cow er, BLAS wnreid-<seeenee pr chasm ame eaL « 201 
by ore yNouel. swings babylonians Religion) pwd O2) » ku Gc ci one = Mads ela home oleae 201 
OOM cm deks alVLEtrODOltanie lV USetiinie, 62. sien ¢ pa lnlstMeoke Bendstay ale ahs tee OY Seca, allied aco 201 
a dee y tach ene eregn Gata lopticyng 5 Oimatten. lomo uw nimee i Gitar one gedutee b> ake canteen 202 
Rie ey UNCer OA OliticlimiV I USCUMI ME le WE ke gleite fuse o aie + eigarie\: aig Ie pe age aR eae eres 202 
KS ame vinder, waar ulterde, Mithra, LVIIL, i o.. ecco cus © oso = Oleic eee mene ke « 202 
ho date y unders saibnotheques NatonaleWA Tin oc wwe veo so bie piel OMY. oven ren aS apetiecoleg es - 202 
Oy ae y lind ChpmePOIMSAVCASE Dwi s cok 5 yh a 7 hoes no ce oak ee ae hee ge SRM Eee aan tah: 202 
SSO, Mo WIRCET eM VeVA@ETenryiel aItbAaNKS. xo u\sa.s $g 5.6 = 21s Wie a oy bow > He Morne penD Mecstoes lenetp natal oases 203 
BO 7a Mey INGE MI VLeErOpOlitarye VITISEU IM RNS alls  woice cos « ihe i units, « elise RRMA sal meen eekly MOS 
ho Sone Viiaer, Ebinliotheques Nationale,"0 lil eevee 2g ete elie oars Gaetoaa eC AS ve imue te 21 203 
HoO.scylinder, e hetliagtie me. cy. + Charen hho fe racers rar, ort acres Geshe Ae ets Pera 203 
SO Onme winder, eIViettOpolitarelVI Set In tay aus a wis, iw mw os Ste fa estan OMA eh creda waka Lain 4208 
Es ap ATW CTAS A DOVER ek Cie mee AES es he. ova si o law pA Re SHORE MP ual See At Nake ke lore? 35 204 
Ri Some Un ermetrOtied, CASt Ano Sia eynhone ole cok i foveis BAe Gog MAMTA PERE DME 2 felts ogeie  ehdiy lag nite + 204 
Ro ee yitioer avietane, siierressaravecs ell, Hig 6 G4... . 2 smiche winds ous eed pee ever aatale eqeeelabettst a 204 
Rati y Net, w\ mOme ed ARV Me nna t at. s «c.g pt ucdeys kta le = REE UR aa ye. Meal ets os cables teas 204 
Roce yunder, berlin sVA20 364 demands lire sue ein ecole -oads 4 AUR oileteal ndash nlaaielin apassge We’ as 204 
EQO.eC viinder mivietropolitane MIUSeUIN: peo. fae wee mace ole gies etapa on aie dasrliet sale ela 4 204 
Bie yaiticlets PESTICISI Ny VETISCLIIY Bassam sa ose Woitone sa aude or Ge Ao tes aN emg lauhe~ yaclnyels 90 205 
5 Oe.) cylinder, (Bibliotheque Nationale, O11 247). bit. apace sre aie «teiele = aie cinta « dynte dnote ol. sa, »/0\ « 205 
BO OseCyiinder, sces@iereq: Catalogues 44.8 hy.0t0 occu be waeuele yp = nieat tinge Oe aye + inn epatipa ge Baie cals In ake 205 
DOO POaIMCLAS RAD OVE S93. OO te i re fon cic sonic avo fos Telletab ty NSO NE lckenehene oOo Sus ketmneue obi ge iss» 205 
G01. wCylinder, de Clercq Catalogue, 3250.5 2-4 Win eee ole ep nee ag od ei oes es 205 
Gog mo ylinder, eUheekiaguet, hye cnnete lie wee chesivie Bhe cintstal © fsb tniairisle eke assinpehe & dasig Ts Cia nin, +, 205 
603. Cylinder, de Clercq Catalogue, 334... 2.2022 eee cess tte aes ne sees seen nnsens 206 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


604.: Cylinder, de: Clercqn Catalogue 5475 aiy oan otc scatter. See eee eee nee cr oper ener 206 
605./Same ‘as’ abovesivs 46 mereaen 8 oihMigcia d's 20h tai Nie Sokal Derren ch aC 206 
606, ‘Cylinder, Metropolitan’ Museum ©..q/ seo dass cal he oo) en eee ea ee een ee 206 
607. Cylinder,» Bibliotheque ‘Nationale; 401.5 sata. 404 «oqo a eee ee 206 
608. Cylinder, dei Clereq:Catalogne; 3 52 fen halts ere sso eh ane eI etn eee 206 
609. Cylinder; ‘froma -castifa Ph fae so vice ist oe lo & take ete On en ete renee 206 
610. Gylinder,: Metropolitan’ Museum «a2 5 1s Step cr cel ere mee eee nee ee e 206 
Oi AGylinder; Lajard;»Culte'de Mithra,, X2X11 05 20 eee eerste eee 207 
612. Same'as above, LES RSs wee cae es 5 64 ee os CU ee ee ee ee 207 
613, Same asiabove;) LIL po nctaae ax dete Peo oe meee ole oe oneness eee 207 
614. (Cylinder, from @ casts Nein ae\e see Se wd ull oh eee Oe ie ee er eee 207 
615..Cylinder, Metropolitan: Museum +. 3.cs ss «iso a Mn ee a ee a ee 207 
616.°Cylinder,’ British Museums. 2 S237 @ a ei ie cee we eee tees ee 207 
617,/Sameévas above: 3c Pals ane 22 Sais Sees ob Re a 5 be a Oa teRe co ee ee eee Cn re 207 
618..Cylinder, ajard;-CultetdeMithray XUV ce a ies «cates eee te cea ee eo 208 
619. Same as above, XIN S18 2s Dak a5 kee Bein oneness oye ee eC: ee er 208 
620, Same as.above, X VITS 6). 225 5 oe ake cree wee. sae se Rice ee 208 
621. Cylinder, Metropolitan’ Museum 22 a2 a oaceien eon eke ee re eer 208 
622, Cylinder, from a paper impression Sx). ose.) erst nee eee nee eee Pee see ee 208 
623. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum <7 25 ae eo) cn ee eee. On eee a eater we 208 
624, Cylinder, J; /Pierpont Morgan Dabrary 3) ens eecr Gee een ee eee eet cee 208 
625. Cylinder, ‘de: Clercq: Catalogue, 3 3 5 avcieia sins te erent) ae rer oe ee nes 209 
626. Cylinder, Metropolitan: Museum % Geni a1. ae: esi es ete es ra ere 209 
627. Cylinder, |) *Pierpont ‘Morgan Labrary cl: chars cus ante ern eier Cece ete 209 
628. Cylinder; “Metropolitan «Museumy 22.92 sty ag erate aaa eee de, een ee cee ae 209 
629. Cylinder,: Louvre, MNBLU7Q © 242 see cates oar, Seen oh tee ne ae en 209 
630.;Same as above, 1909 a6 oF ss Pee oe, dei ss «0 oe eee Gm ce eee a ee 209 
631. Cylinder, Metropolitan’ Museum: 27% seas 4 aia cic nk nernee tee ieee de ee ae ae 210 
632, Same as’ above’, he ses sods cee ale Mane ee ae, aoa. wee a te heh ae Oe Fee tea 210 
633;. Cylinder; Berlins VA2667 os 20% sie ans 6 oe We 2 eee terre, ener aes een ie ee 210 
634. Cylinder, Metropolitan Mousettm Tarn. 5 wee Bete cicie mene eee eee eee 210 
635. Same. as-aboyess pales Wee Pieces a oo slomedelee Sets Gus n Se Ep cee ae ce ee 210 
636. Same asabove tags sors ei iste ws Waa wo ee aaree en erence me UR ets pe pan PC 210 
637. Same as-above 2 sw virctontai, o 5s Rus Athos che releemtie. 2 tte se Sie aaa tose a cine a eee 211 
638. Same as above “a's sx. 5, aoe is 6 2 a fale Gres ns abe 2cis et Rie pein Ce ae Nee ke oan 201 
639. Horustpiercing Apep, Lenormant, Histoire ;Ancienne IL jgi19z aeons eee eee oi 
640." Pierret,’ Le Pantheon Eeyptienspie7 2.5 ocs os sete = sacs tenets hee eee 211 
641. Sassanian seal, J. Pierpont-Morgan Labrary -. <2... .) > oe ee ene. ere 211 
642. Cylinder, J.<PierponthMorgan librarys. . a2- on ss ee ee een ee oe eee on 
643. Cylinder, Berliny VAZEA 5% 7. sees pS oe ote als eens nus el ohn oie Oe. Cee ee 212 
644. * Cylinder, British (Museuni ie. smo ne em als «1 ost = eae em te Re cee eee 7 4 
645.. Cylinder, Metropolitan’ Museums ae a5 (<2 cc chstene oc = ee i oe ee oe ang ee oi 
646. Cylinder, British Museum ..... - Proc idi ss me we alte aagide x he insane SONG Alege tho Ga Toa ee ae 212 
647. St.\ George and the: Dragon: ig ou. as. ous vo 5 ss a slo eis atone CRO a: mene se at 212 
648. Cylinders: British /Musedim | 2 22/s'"ats espe tors ele ok a siete, Ce en eS (eee tae cnt eee 214 
649. Cylinder, “Heuzey, Sceau de Goudéa, fig (Coen acenre ete ch eee niet, eee 214 
650. Same as‘above, figs Lia's doy ates aeeiom ro ioe & sud Sie veo aca iate ete anes ene eM ae 215 
651. Bas-relief, Heuzey, Sceaude: Goudéa, fig) |S 21... cnn str tense te mae ee 215 
652.°Cylinder,’ J. Pierpont: Morgan ‘Library oi... omits 12 oe eee ena Oe ee 216 
65 3.) bas-relief, sblewzey,, Oripines-Orientales; pa L543 eee eee js 2iv sietateante Gileale abe Ome 216 
654. Cylinder,; British (Museum 972 2 arc eye = oo ue lee the cm og ne eee at eee cee 216 
635. Cylinder, ;Lajard, Culte*de’ Mithra, XX X15 14 or akte crete renee ee eee 217 
656. Cylinder, Harvard Musenm, Richy Second Memoir, fig.01 425 ete ee ee 217 
657. Cylinder; Lajard,) Culte*de: Mithra, oi1504 5 2 acts cnn ee ete sateen ie ee 217 
658.) Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum =n 3% alts oe «aisles cc lord ci erika one ee ree 217 
659. Assyrian'cone seal, Lajard,)Culte de: Mithra, OXI i2 eee ee 217 
660. Same'as ‘above y- tri. a7..5,. tats seta abere rs aya Basses aly cameo eee Capers cage en ere OE auroras ae? 
661. Assyrian cone seal, }:)Pierpont; Morgan’ Library ai... eee ee 217 
O61 2. Same as:above 9%. i ae ae 5 ek geo adodson ahs ras allo Rc PR cone Pa eC ee 217 
6622. statue; Place, Ninive et ’Assyries iil): pl XXX] Dison cece ee ee 218 


66202 Sameras above se bce Pelee ea re ee re FRR Oe ced eee ie ree 218 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. X1X 


bE4 sumipressionson, tablet belonpingsto. Wie La, Warde we corataeie ee a ee Roe ea 219 
664. Stele of Marduk-nadin-akhi, Rawlinson, W.A.I., III, AGS. Levee: «heer eee es 2 eat 220 
GOs. Cynder siMetropolitan Museunes sr scdernucc de iat ders Lace oe ee ee ceed 220 
BOO 4 pamiesas BDOVes tcl rya a Nena Me hah nr haa Kady ts OO Oe OU RS 220 
DO jee erag RDOVOR EN MB ea ee ie) kets he dese dita thd aS Psd OW roe) Dials OS 220 
O68. Cyloder) Layard, «Monuments, IL pls 60) fig..46 do2qauste po o+ fads ae eyo een ete 220 
BGO ,. We yunderm Vi ctropolitateM nsenin iets ee seiko. ditch wae ee aah aoe APM Re Mee 220 
G70. bas relict LavardselViomumentsn LapliOarqae . fer. v Weer SMe ARs «ck . enen 224 
Ope oamiesestabOVes Dlg 7 ALS Sens see at eat ae ath ance wield be hey gate OM NE Oe LOR 221 
Od COAMCLAs ADOV Ose DEO wa SOA. MAAK: NS oh eso) ety anol ake n hinder nee, BO elo 6h etn ON RA 220 
Os pOsMiGs ASeADOVG,’ DLR ZS Pras 40. ors) We see's. tk crardeavar el hdc alec Ot eee ee AIO: ok, ae 222 
7 4e Cali asADOVGs PLUS Bers awd at ars! ow gcak tu Oaks aha Ma ea I eI CAS oF a 223 
O75 cmamey as: ABOVE DING Ai bars re al Waters oa civs Sng Mihay uh eS eG ao 223 
656 Cylinders Isard, Southesk pictur. «Sea geo a Pac's vole Me eS apo ey 224. 
Ogge Cynder. me nicrponts Viorgan jLibrarysasc0) suuvaa acct eRe Oe Genk ene 224 
Os, SoAMeras A DOV Ne NaV 11826 win ti thn eee Matt alte arot oi iziiona nares hein MRA LIN) rch enti 224 
G7 Guy under sLajarosnGuiterde: MithraseX LIX o'. aa sane Were ne Seale a ee 224 
Geo CriindermVictropolitan: Museum (0.4) ay sade no aves as ene te 225 
Cot we yincuermrischek-and.sW iédermann, 2.054 $4 65 dine Aiea he Goad and oo eg ee ee 225 
O32 Gy lindermbritshs Miuscuiie wa. 2 £0 5.8044 0 5 a aun beset ee ee 225 
O27 acy linder si astierpont, Morgan, Library td «Sc tae hd na ear cae eae ol ON ee Se 225 
O34. -Cylinderssl evyatnoenische, otudien, fig.. 97; 4.2.05 tera ane Se ae ae 2 225, 
OG ake VUNG er MOI ASCASIRNIE A gia. fd'egtd' sy duin si gis are std vtsven gualias cle evens, MRE Ie, Marte Ne a25 
OUbs Orlinder wm Victropalitan s Museumiia) es io 1a cued ae goes. Ae ee Sm 226 
O87. oAnosasyapovesa wena ae siascne hes 2p ee HERI Ree pee POD te ee LED 226 
O@scoviuncerwee Clerog) Gatalopue, 2343 40.5475 cau och) pate ee ees SA ok 226 
GSO. Cylinders Louvre eA G76 5 cash a's its ah cite ta acd SEPO y eE EeeoR: omen 227 
O00, vc vinder prsarvarca Vi uscum a4°3 SO atk des a 4 Say s)n he ole re ee ok. eee 227, 
Og te. Cylinders jerhierponts organi Libraryss 3) ysl, s 8 oo ad ic 3 he eam emnN ee oer a 224, 
DOs 20 VUNnder se ouvre MAG)’ BOa Mahe On oid ou Gas hao e ois, i eNO eee OE ee 227 
Goa. Cylinder a BrinsheVinsenm ioe tins oe as ca hak els. ee ee tere een renee Pe 227 
OG4. Cylinder mM etropolitans Vinseuties s 64.5 2 4 Sig /ox ae cas We a re 40th cas oe eee eee eee gag, 
Oo5., Cylinders: Britisha Museunig«e seen tote a. «0h vv oa 5 2 alo cindy oo ete a eee nee let tne ale 227 
Goon Wyinaen, University Orelennsy Vania, 5042... 5 2 ssa ca cana sa) wn aes nee eke 228 
607. @yunderseBibliotheque Nationale, (4.49 ¢ iis. ves wee cs ate elds + «Pe meen nae ae 228 
OOs sy uncerelvictropeltanaliusentiey 2 sas 6 facta e cee + as cie +) ole eatete a Meena ao eerie om 228 
Ooo mteyundersbelonping to: Rey-slicnty Fairbanks. 57.40) ay es e5< «41 comes weiner od 228 
yoo..@ yimaer,) Dibliotheques Nationalese1 3c oo sian s.% 425.5 sks 4a ol tein wie +) thenenstte Weenies. Saray <1 ah 229 
Tolar yimderye| ajard,sCulteedesViithta eX XAT 5255, bora Sas oa emi oie ete wPaieteMe: Belloc o f= 229 
TO ze yindern ce: GlerCqnc atalogue,. 34245155 n.5% a ans oes «+ © a wie rtehe cmon) ate ae ghee ateal iete 229 
Zoo Gy linder Dritishs Viuscumaaaurn dea. eh 66 bet haces 22h sae se = a eliete gina pineesium cm. © 229 
AoAse« yincen, derClereqy Catalogue, 3 26 Wr. oo 6 Faia & tig oe > cictear erates ae meee Men, cto & of 229 
7 OSs) SaMleras ADOVE TRS 2 7st. Fe teh a 5.4%, 4p. Ms WG SA Nie cee yi Ne eae OP ee nega ial 229 
700, Cylinder Metropolitan Museum 24 a... ovis Se sete ole words + sa tee © opt eh enecatae aida, alloy altel wie 230 
707. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library... 26.6 fees be se ce ee eo oe the alive Se lg 230 
708. Phenician Bowl, Clermont-Ganneau, L’ Imagerie Phénicienne, pl. VI..........-....-4-. 2a 
709. Bas-relief from a photograph, D’Alyiella, Migration of Symbols, p. 146.......-........ Zou 
okey uncers WeaGr wbeatty we sios cine Ae cies Sof 12 kN te wee din cw ce ifoeee we enwniaie aanten aomtansy tae 2ay. 
711. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library .. 1.6.22... eee ee cee ct eee nec cnet e neces 237 
Au. Satniexasyabovew: cones | meee ae nie us Se eae she ie erry aie vues een en, aera mel hans) eN eae Boe, 
713. Cylinder, Ménant, Pierres Gravées, I], p. 115... 2.0 see e cece eee ete teen eens 238 
714. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library .... 0.1... see cece eee teen eee eeeeees 238 
715. Cylinder, Place, Ninive et |’ Assyrie, III, pl. 76, G. .. 0... see eee eee cece ence ee, 238 
7LOwcylinder, ; British) Museum, ance ape © «oie o-oo or = = sere aaalt age on™ 2(@let clad ener saeliaharel =tdizn- 239 
717. [There isno 717. | 

gp8. Cylinder, Tord lores: ss) sie ete + Mee © levees 2 hs SE ode einer niaqenede Btn ® ln ata 239 
719. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library... 1... 0 eee eee eee eee eee eee 240 
my 20ie Cylinder,< Louvre gy. Sey ia Nalesis oie © 8 4 acre 5 aah = a «> Wii ghe ay rer IS Grime 240 
721. Cylinder, British Museum .........2 cee e eee eee ete eee nett eee e nen ees 240 
722. Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de Mithra, LD VR ASG Ore Sete ete ee che ptcgistn Si epics 241 


. Cylinder, British Museum ........--- eee e eee cere eee e cence entree nee ees 241 


XX INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

724, Cylinder,. British Museu 4, :.:5) 6-2 5: are. oc cs, x) as teats cre «kes ae eee oe ae 241 
725. Cylinder;) Bibliotheque. Nationale) 744.205 «ce ss certs oe eee ea 241 
420... Cylinder, British: Museum sicis%,5 m0) «5, =) so oe 6, spose, ot clei e, cee ee ee ee eee 241 
729. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum oct ur =.c ates gee ly ee eet ee ee ee 242 
728, Same 28 above Panui speitteg +. iale She onon yim iee, 5, oy oe ea ate haley « mains ee ace nCe ene ene ae ee 242 
2 Qe. GATE AS) ADOVE tara ghee: aces ee: 9, «5 k/e Geade.iag, Gockaues shite latest is ala cettce’s aay ean me 242 
73001 Cylinder from, af Cast. jhe elas oae 6.6 mo 4) agci'als faecium veo ak eee ee ee 242 
731. Cylinder: |, Pierpont; Morgan. Library 2/9. <1) in). os erste ne eae eee ca 243 
732. Cylinders British Museum (ojsie< aha ces cae ents ke ap sep eens ye da eg eat ee ee ae 2ae 
73 2 DAME AS ADOVE Des ccd «ols, she sce Seta eve me sw Son wusye nv «we Site) Ae neon 243 
734, Cylinder, |.Pierpont Morgan Library 30.712 2 ca ~ cone ue sbeiatnotey eter states eens: oer 243 
745, Cylinder, Louvre, crowneN8 379 <t.c-..e<. 5 5 obs oc, lets eee a ee a 243 
726. Cylinder;}Metropolitan Museums) ac. 2% eu. «2 ane es 9 ete cen ee een 243 
737. Cylinder,ide Clercq Catalogue, $344) 01f0.4 0... om «52 acme oi ee et 245 
738. Cylinder, Bibliotheque \ Nationale, 7715... 5,..2.<> 2 « = «tipi ue ea ee ee 245 
#295 Cylinder) Louvre, AOD 79 fe sns sis swiss 0 ate ale 44 458 aoe ee eee n= oe, Reenter a 245 
740, Cylinder, Louvre, crown, N8375 01.1. 0% «103 de oh he ee en ee 245 
741. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum (2215 v.00: cera sae > ose eee ee eee ee 245 
a2, Same asabove, «ois iene sip ects G6 is 6 94 ace a wi cers 6 9 ahe a enone eee teal evens eee ener 245 
749, Cylinder, Fischer and Wiédermann, (305. .:2..% «0. + alc tety state cine eee ee eects eee 245 
74a.) Cylinder, frOUi a. Cast Verars ace alae ag «aan 0 a4 mi sam 9 pac ROR ee oe ety ee 245 
745, Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library...» . <0): a tenet eee ee, ee nc 245 
746. Cylinder, (Metropolitan Museums: oo sc. oe he cane esse etn net enter 245 
747. Cylinder, Berlin, VA2923 30.6 6 siece 45s ae ce cy | elec foe ten en ae eae 245 
7A7 au Cone; Sts Petersburg, lhe: Hermitage... <7: ess gece a ei cee 245 
748.,Cylinder, Lajard,Culte de;Mithra, X VIIj (4c. otc ee ae ee ee eee eee ee 246 
740. bas-relief, Humann und, Puchstein, Ausgrabungen, p.02 30-9 ee ee 246 
750, Cylinder, Jo Pierpont Morgan: Library © 3.082). ots sc crea ence ieee 247 
yet. Cylinder, British Museum vo oo. = 5 <lses 0 «aoe ote cee woe Neate eae tc 248 
752. Cylinder, Berlin, VASO8< pc. . ans os os wae oe 2 ule yee hs eee aes anes eee 248 
aon. Cylinder, de.Clercq Catalogue, 308. vie tao <= oie oe ets ie cs eee 249 
784, Same as. abovess 320 bis 5 ea's os"selv aie ve cise dae + glee aia en ee ee 249 
765, Cylinder, Louvre; AO LS 14) a5 is sists clas, obs eis adee ote eens ie en ey ee 249 
7¢6., Cylinder, “M. Schlumberger ..°. :--..:. «> s+ 7 «te maneis eee Reena eter eee 249 
757. Cylinder, Bibliothéque Nationale, 705%. i520. oe so oye eee tee ee 249 
768. Cylinder, Berlin, .VA 2706 we ni-10 + oc voi lges, tretasate ts pene ene ee 249 
759.. Cylinder, Louvres «, osetietew 0 #5 xs + 0 9.5. o 4 <tetoen tier Vinten Reanie at aae eu aiet okok eno 250 
760. Cylinder, Metropolitang Musettn, 2. sss. 2... 5 at ee > «eee ee eee 250 
761. Cylinder,’ British /Museumigesi tics psc > ois cc tee Re See = Rees See pee Met are 250 
762. Cylinder, de.Clereq Catalopne, 353 00. 6 4 3.5 6 co. ac sein ae 250 
763. sameas above, 344 Syelea eles epan eve sisi sl slery's 5.4 ais 6 + mlehs vege tnd gence men nae ener a 250 
764. Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationales5703 5... c. .. c= ee ee ee 25. 
765,. Cylinders British Museum. 7. cis wince us ee > 80 aie ls ante ee ee 251 
766. Cylinder, Lajard, Cultecde Mithra, XU 050 000 cttcee corse ren teens Za 
7067. .Same as above, XXX V 506% sai wisi galore wc + atsk ie eh one sien = Ue aero inae tele Ree nn eee ce 252 
768. Cylinder, British Museum ...... ES Oe ge ews ese Ge Ss Zee 
769. Cylinder, sLajard,,Culteide: Mithra, is. V1jai)e ants yaee pene en ee ea 252 
770, mameras above, AX XV [lia ee. lovee wages as tas So eee een ee 252 
771 «Same as above, XXX VilGgsscs wae ans cere <i aie the tiie een ene ete as ere 252 
772. Cylinder, Louyre, de sarzec, .Decouyertes, pig Ji) aligsaa andl. ee ee ee 255 
7a. Lenormant, tistoire Ancienne, 1V 57.91 90\e aan ee ee 258 
PFA. SAME aS ADOVE Ys 6 dil. wets orate wee hiv oidlny, dost nce 2) a tks cle tee Stee tie a ere 258 
795. Pietret,: La. Pantheon: Egyptian, py 4.6..)icr.g ne tes eee ee 258 
776. Bas-relief, Perrot:and Chipiez, Elistory of Art in Sardinia, ctcj Ul; plaV lil ee ce 260 
777. oame.asvabovey fig’.92 1 Ter orca sacs, cue pean tie ate cen nme ure ete ie ec a eed ee 260 
7978, Same as above; fig! 3 V4. ec win cate sow beeen linen uit anette 5 homed Re ere 260 
479.:Same as above, fig. 354 23 ic. sss. voi eo © ce epee ns ope aie Mene reelieas Jobe tr eceaeuee eee 262 
780, Samevas above, {19.53 20 cies «cu sierhels ei sie sities rekon e aaecaaies se ite Gira a acres a ee 262 
781,,Samé.asabove,, Ng-. 397 asiauv.s aie os alee siete 6 eS rolgir) aimee cassis ie oe ett oe tes ae ee See 262 
782. Bas-reliet} yon, Luschan, Ausgrabungen mm sendschitiij p42 92mm a ae ee 262 
7:83 ..Same-as above,s pln XX VL etna ore ate ose eee ie ete <tc goa eee ee ee a 263 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XX1 


784. Bas-relief, von Luschan, Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli, plex Xk Ville ae eee, cyte 263 
Pee MOAIIeras AIOVC aime nee ser OO Cre) a hid 1 eee a ge OF: cereale aides 2 263 
PEPSI Os TNC eh car ne eget Gene eee ee nee) Week Oreretn | SE TP Rel eee encom 263 
poe OIG AB AUOVE BO tirte tie” Ae ICU Ln ews fa eiate ye (One beni ane) Suh et ihe dom ce oO. 263 
Fig Sader es RUOVEH DIC Lih VARa.. 2 Lickin dhe neta ets, 0 26 a, eM Rae RS fg 264 
Pog pasrecls sain, journal ’of Archeology, /1V, ply use. mua & rue mien. Jowk caee. 264. 
PoO..ues-coler,plerabig,: pnotopraniy by WEI, Ward » ask: poe cuca, ee ee 264 
(Os bas-relict a Koidewey, Die) EHettitische Inschrift, p. 3... cmpsame tte ee a te, cine ies oe 264 
Poo-gcyVundern) mbierponriVicrgan Libraryp.c.t, oleh een. emer ee AIA a eee: 266 
foe ae yuoderseyLctropoitan Viuseum mi. 5a te Ue geile eee ie Aa ee ee A 267 
Pip POetIG AS TAD OV. ont MeO One ite, ARAN Wi bet ead ee SOM RU OR AY ee gee noe ai nt 267 
Ris aie as ADOVG “AMR Te Ogee | EO 2G ME Ae a Rs hes ie es ER ACA tirlk MON A a a DE 267 
WO ESAT eco sADOVSM ATEN Ser eee Fate hoy eee eM oe eee il ne Kee eee TD cine 267 
poy Ae yoderensnmolcan: Museum, Oxford: . <2, eis We ace, Ste ne er ke, 268 
TOS e yndetemy its Lenty | raper earn, nyc ads oct es Oe oe en ee ee 268 
799. From’ a vase, Perrot and Chipiez, Gréce Primitive, fig. 487+... 00.02.0000 geseeeseuves 268 
800. Silver boss of Tarkondemos, Wright, Empire of the Hittites, p.165............0000-005 269 
BoOIePo ek ebipnotnoques Netionale ¢14, 415: .«,.c hts), 5 ck: Ca are ee AME gcd. eae 269 
Boz ew LiseMpelonein eetot Weebly VW ardat 0 Ses Xo 2.0), Ges d Oe Aa ge A ae Beal 269 
Biz? POCAMDCION gy GME Lee VV ATO OMe ve Meld es a's uf, a ny eee Cees APU ee Bt 269 
SOed ores aoe eocasibeonping to \W. Hi -Ward 0... ceeee aan anh ene eee we nes, 269 
Bove we yincchmccucrercd, «atalopueyn9 80) A7iko., o8,o Gi a ne VR ee As ale 271 
BOO Mater Aska DOVEE) COWIE wee Gott ot U8 eo raps vie oe, eee pede eG LE ne ei Re 271 
BO PAD eras ADOV rps SO sree yo 5 Ns <5 sh 54 a0h ok CS Vas IE RU te uate ok 274 
Sos ay undereninuotheques Nationale,.4591.:!.<1. sa. (oh sar es ts ee 271 
Bog au yilderss) me iicrponeviorgan: | dprary. <7 ss 45 xi. + «oi caldera 27k 
Saor acs Viind eres VLctrODolleanelVi seu 42,244) 2 527 ai 4 ce eee eet eee ee ol ie Pie ee 274 
aiiesc vuncermiamr erponts Morgan iLibrary 15.0... acre aisle ts Se Baa ee a 271 
Siz acyunderaiVictropoutane Museums: .) 2 cuectl. a). etme te ate ER kes Ca ee 271 
Ciigeaw yuucermetaarde cutee: Mithra, TVI8 1) wn). (eee eet ee ah ee: Leak ee 271 
Brana y under .e) tmletponteviorgan Library iy4) «yc. laiich > va Gee Renee RoR sen eee te 272 
Sie gcy linden Deloneinemo, ordi tercy enc suis «he ele uae cua idhe aby wee. ee eae ae 2792 
DLO acy lndereajard sCulterde: Mithtay’ LV IIL, 6. 6s. 5 cue aee ree ie nice dbs aren, 272 
Sy eC yuller, enc lereqy atalopties:2 80 5. 45a": 62 eie ae 5 ele & oy Re ee 7 ee | a 272 
Hilo mecatiteras ADOVEsE2O2 Screen cert Nan ics s ulcmiulecey. cee ha tne Oleh ee OR Rees a. 272 
OM OusoAalne asta DOV Chea O [ame se men ae ia sis de lalcduch euaes tebate tarsi a va uciety-piueks phe ete a aR Mea ert 272 
Oe ego AIMCSAgADOY Cpe} © Sane Ne Paecty ghia oir sleek «ARGC Nhe Io 8 hl sg Siow ee eR as art 72 
Sa dea Videos| ee tcrpont Vi organy Library.ac oly wise. cli ops lei atelckers: oe sip Sora ae ee Tk gt Ze 
Cee may linders der lercg. Catalogue, 6.89 5.21. ach iis wole ste closes oe s'g + als ola iel eames het kaen teh Eu tc 272 
B7g SCY incek- sOritish Viuseutn Beiiys. etl 1s G05 o%s 21s)-iaite co! ORR ee peek RE ae tahS « 274 
S24 guy under 4g} abierponte Viorganel dbrary (06s soe 0 oie biti iele sly ihe ee Nei tate ahs 274 
See y Under, SOricisiislVi UscUIn Mecteds See eee. 4 lode de co nys oem eR al stone aaa Lagan oe 274 
S205 y linderm) el ierpontavl organ Libraryyom ot. bees «> te ee eee et 274 
Dizi paOAMI CG ARRADOY C Paeten retr wee tie e Grel oY! Gln draih aateavel e's wus 5 arate GV eee eee Nc meat de 274 
SPO MOAN elAstADOVE mare ee Le eek. ea dhe othe alee ¢ nti d a daweus teen bal ieee, “aks Fade vet gah a2 TA 
S20 4Cy inder, bivlotheque: Nationale; 711 St dis. ePe ture ts <r bar ae edt Ptah n-tese rae ve 275 
BOs viinder eVect OpOlltan sIVIUSENT ec. oo). 0 tina tsa tele Weis age elsuecatelp nis oat ee ior crctekc @ platen 275 
Baw etviincer abipuotnequen Nationdle;. 808... /5 cit. sist. Lets neo 's etter ne eae Alle eke a, 275 
Bae at Y INCEN eT ON A sCASE meee ate weer ties cs eie Shots toh a)-s i 1A Pee Pec eee che Lome ter cogs in Tht ox. 275 
Dia ee vulider.s bibMotieduem Nationale, ©9741,1G cna. wm aco ite) otsks  ecaeie ie Sicha weet grt aleve 276 
Cid min y uncer, sie bier DOntuViorgantLAbrary.a. gat. alcatel cia igh: usin ich eh eee ratte anasto 276 
BB MY NCer A DeTING aV. A 2 2 Gite enetatie las lphats jcoronella fiat oo) iskeriefaloeibed saath hac ei eee MTs unten oh 5 276 
Boom ey Maer, s) sar terpOntaN Crean Library pate «ctetse ate tle eae raat ole meister eek alcdl-L ole ical 276 
S47 sy indetmbipiotheque Nationale, (3:4 2 yhte louie «le Ue ele Sco alsMelebal alle sea) s)rle lal stele -eUokele aye el a) 297 
oa Gace y unicders) a ierponel ior gan Abrary ete ats wie ces tee eee tet ee tenet tM esate ale ct fault tae ot ct 27 
S2o8Cyuncer bipjotheques Nationale, 460.1. -legape cee fe -eeeiene tale eb cdete ala eia oie ae 8d « 277 
BA OeC vinden wlbOUV Te ttett o eee ain stn eins eet aioe iy (el > wy WRN ald or ce techn esol tn aloe te ahs 278 
Ba eay oder. tee bietpontslViorgan Library to pul gis < fast eters ee eet setae oh <tc alsa c's 278 
Syoe Cylinder Layard. Culteide, Mithra,) LV 1,-8.0 22 ser eeeuieele tebe io telat ota nf sioity eg!» « 278 
B47 Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationales 717) 0...) siee ap wie 2 erated ees statins whe aiwielalin we a on sle 278 


Sea ey inder, |meserpontVviorpan Library. c's elds ‘tla a utetote cists reeks seit ctintel~ Blin eipitalor = 278 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


$45. Cylinder, British: Museum ®sn 22+. . oie ete eee eee eee eee 278 
846..Cylinder,\ Metropolitan, Museum’. 60. ee oe: eeaats Moai ey ane eae nes oa ee ee 279 
$4'7..Cylinder;s}:. Pierpont) Morgan Library 020). wsowcre «0 eerue sreta ores mene pO eee 279 
S48. Same asaboves s/s 5 os aie le Wie eo ote bg ey eI tea een re TERT tC eee ee 279 
849. Cylinder, British: Museums. 34 014 sen. orm eo cre 2 a ae ere a eee 279 
850. Cylinder, J: Pierpont Morgan Library jc ota eee eect er eee 279 
oer. Cylinder, * British *“Museumivi.n acme earch ct ete ton oe er een ee 279 
362.) Cylinder’, Bibliotheque Nationale,. 39 2 "x. wi wee ele ig ev nee rent et Mie EE ae 279 
$53 2 Cylinder, /Mrs. Henry? Draper’ 2 atc. seers us eee eer et ee ee, ee 279 
854. Cylinder, Bibliothéque, Nationale, “770. 2. 24)... Cae © emer d ee en e e 280 
Sessa, and: 6, Cylinders, Louvre tia sn ease sien eer aie en tere eee ie ee 281 
856. Bronze plaque, Clermont-Ganneau, Revue Arch., XXXVIII, pl. XXV................. 282 
897.-Cylinder, Boston. Museum 0 2.5 fs, ste s oe eters eae wane ners city he 283 
$58. Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de: Mithray- XX XV 01 300g aie acne corre cet 283 
869. Cylinder belonging to D.sB. Tis@Curtis alee aati ve hie eye ens Oe one ten een eee 283 
860.; Same‘as above 5... 9:5 dic oS ay vik Bee Galliaen geen, © cua eee ene eT genet Mane De gO a ee 283 
861: Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationaless7 16.77: eee cen cre el cat er cme nen 284 
862, Cylinder,<]: Pierpont Morgan Libratyarsc.c.se ri tate oie heat, eer ten eee ay gee etre 284 
863. Cylinder, British Musetim, 230.0) eae naeees eee ee eee ee ee 284 
864...Same'as above is: S.u o secclu le oie allo meieate taste ain, Riser GR a, eum iene emer ren oe 284 
865.) Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale;\789 sean tee cee ger keene eerie ee Oe 284 
866. Cylinder, Metropolitan: Museum am sin ars Sree ey eet oe ence eee en 284 
867. Cylinder; j; Pierpont: Morgan: Library 5s 0cs6 wn eee ep eee eae ce ee ee 285 
868: Cylinder, University of \Pennsylvaniag se +e: 5+ eect meee nae 2 eee eee ee 286 
869. Cylinder, British: Museum paea = eae meas oie vk Aloe eae ee eerie eee arn 286 
870. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum 2.7 sion scarab © <= sae chet tain torent oe een a ee 286 
871. Cylinder’ belonging tov Kdward A’ Bowen cer. <c5 os 50cm yon Oerenete ee tena ree ree 286 
372. Cylindery Princeton University “wae ek ae te. «ee ene ee cote eer, ee ene 286 
$73. Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de Mithra,) XXX Vy "4a. 62 se cam cra rte en 287 
874. Cylinder, Bibliotheque INationales:71 5.020 < as cle can oe eens ene, ee ee iri eee 287 
875. Cylinder, de Clereg Gatalogie,*3952.05.6 wu we ep. Sennen eet etn ee cee ee 287 
876. Cylinder, Layard, Culte de Mithra,sX XX Vij 11 ces 0. he oe oe eee net ener 287 
877. Cylinder, Jo Pierpont Morgan’ Library) 2ecin.5 Ae earn ree tee en er ee 287 
$78. Cylinder, Berlin @VAST Sica «ei ga ach aia sek ent cuenta eae et in Renee cea es ew 288 
$79. Cylinder, J.) Pietpont Morgan: Library 0.) thet amen ee ey wee ean ere ee ere 288 
880. Cylinder, Louvre Ay tine re woes si ne: aie tote ie leks ional © ele ale 1 shine ie Sanat Coe nee ie ES 289 
$81. Same as above’. Gee sei tetas we oie s aie gece aueeene Bue ae 65M keeway op RO ee pCR Sie en 289 
882..Cylinder, Metropolitan: Museam' .).). 0 istic sini. ou icue)tetec com tanner UacMeane note ctlateeme 289 
883.:Cylinder, ‘froma -castyrrsetans um srdeetate o elaieli ie tometeis snc ya ohev eR: Seem nee nee cere ae 289 
884. Cylinder, Metropolitan) Museum cmiy. «aici to ate ee calm pane «coool een een mee seein ee 289 
8855 Cylinder, Lajard; Cultesde Miathray XX V Ur ime aitpeetyre cnteetne tenc emis mStar as 289 
886. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum oc: a2 his: ne 6 eine ae Se ree ee ee, ee 290 
887; Cylinder belonging to 7 DSK. EL; Curtisig)m vieic sre slau a terete naan ee Senn errs ee earner, 290 
888,°Cylinder, Metropolitan: Museum. .70-tae <ivqretre ree cee ae ee 290 
889. Cylinder; J. Pierpont Morgan Library cles > ieee ove mie eee eee a 290 
8qo. Cylinder; Lajard,, Culte dewMithra, X24 XV 15 8.5 acc atte nen seneeee aee 290 
Sg1i/Same'as ‘above,’ EXIT, 403. cerca tee ot oes © = ans eae uo Pen ee eae ee et 290 
892. Cylinder,:Berling VA2Z 20 1) 205 fans. om mies wie cal enn AE ieee tc Nee we eet en 291 
893.. Cylinder, Bibliotheque: Nationale;:75 5 datyse. mie sis eee ei chet te ee nee 291 
894. Cylinder, Metropolitan: Museu, ove. 01. cry cee ements etree eaten ee 291 
895. Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale, dela Chapelle, 5) reorient eee ee Wess at of 291 
$96. Cylinder,’ Metropolitan: Musetn,ai6 52 ener aseee city eens ene ee eee 291 
897;, Cylinder, British ‘Museum’. 3650 sk oe ols atin oo eee epee Weert enter 2gI 
898. Cylinder, [Cajard; Culte de Mithraye XXX VID 1Oe.@-.tomte cae eee a en 293 
8g9.'Cylinder; J. Pierpont Morgan Library..247) «aes eatery aimee ters eer | eee 293 
goo, Cylinder: belonging: to’ Miss Isabel: Ps) Doddirean aa. teers aceon at eee 294 
go1.. Cylinder, |; Pierpont Morgan: Labrary 3% cere ates teres ee 294 
goz. Cylinder, Lajard, Culte dei Mithra, XV 35a eo wie oct eee een ee ee 294 
903. Cylinder, J.’ Pierpont Morgan Library) u. 2. «1 alee ote orate tees nee 294 
go4. Same as’above 2.5 as tucte = +s tien 0 wvley ete > wists) aie suteneare rh et, Peel a Cente me. eee, 295 
GOS. Same’ as above 590.5. 4 Fie s Bw hp eee Nh samme wey mores GRMN ORR Aree oe earn E eo ene 295 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXIll 


QO Mi yiMOereRrOlira) Caste rt weer eNO e.g.) secs ah SRO, Men aioe Miter nda. 295 
GO Bey Ider mV Letrono tanery | USetlIn Haier eM d Vatdie cts sacle a cushin occas ys aecueeeieoeies AM 295 
GOS. mone mana DOVER CRtr tee miter Rte ee celak «Wail ele elovere acer atop paket HA ait weer aan & + 295 
Oy wOatlerasta NOY Canina Met Baw N Mt atte, Etch Suk 28: 7, Wis emer ang Reale ska 8 scare  « 295 
I eo altiCe nes ADOy eC creNrnn eens | eer ate ety ov tN enw esi a ikem Ae the aie ane Ao EUS 295 
Cates DUE ewe Crocerol a theMb eV OCaSa dl Lop 27 Fas. ic wig anaes adn hs uh crae eh ak PR, - 295 
OTe EST MDCCT EN. CLO DOM Cal PI USEUINT Me ante tra oxo 2, 0) e+ oa iS iotet ne dlateeert anaes <page 4 296 
Gat mG yunicerss|at der ponte Vlorgan ADrary ae... shit), caia fe. atari eee NON Ae oadctnn s . 296 
popu, Bee Ve MN OMe Bop? "uo. oxy cries a cae ER ae Se le We on 296 
(igre Go VUNG Cr eV Ctr ODOlifaTmmaVi SCI Mane Care © aa wag Rice ox h55, iecay ane ooratay’ «wh ai rewten tats nee s 297 
OG MOAN HAS oS DOV G Semewe on ee Wet PDC eck eA ol gt Soha sub ane” di ete on taht eato Eachanetere 6 297 
OP geroalhesas BDOVC wr ae tmt- Pedersen olla Mara leeutgn s syahhatat at whee salt’ x hater t donate ars 297 
OU See oy Cet aLIer pols lOrgan  ADrar yar st cies < geah se c.4 a Sosin Ges aks. Altace nie shape meen AGL 297 
OEOWEC ) Ler mV Ler Opo) taney WUSCKINh epee yt yar At cece siabae nhs ls es a adeetatd Mab. toe eater. 297 
2G AM CLA SEA DOV CMM MEA Rearren Rett PRT Cpe eee doe, one ters. cae oes aaa eis’ 4 Baya eae ep aUe eae 297 
Sore oy der we aang Ou tercelvistivase cs A Ls Qa. Witt... a ws 2 watered Aaleee lewraenetn: 297 
Geer eyiludere biplomeqner NallOnaleeg O39 bage. do den, ataate ats Sarah op Sos eiad ence. ae tet 297 
Oe JEP DAC PAS EADOV ses 7 Ostet Pe Pt MefPaabel a petiie satin ke, erelgheve Si ue, 4.) aye papa, esos hna,ale apes Mee «eee nes 298 
O27 yra Cy nd erm yleropoltan Minsenm fag eae at ee eeeaia Mies m-flo G oner, cas audeagey AeMORY 1 cert neue tc 298 
Gz Guat vilnccte peticrpontelViorgan Labtaryaby agen a2. Oat. iis ctanttl Aue oo eee Gee ios we eee 298 
2 Ore DA TOeAS FADO Y Cae am ere Peete o sole ns es afin ar o/s hk fol ont %e, Ot ale as a: «: dn agenda RRR Oe 299 
OF Tee Oy NCEE GLUT CLC y men anne ee etme Miss reads la rene ah itis na apres. «a's ar ia gue «det eee 299 
GZS eC VEN Crm erin a velo) 2mm re yaa afr tvete sates «A'S @ aks\el vibe ici phh ola, aubeiphsiets + oh cpwa kan tiah ahs 299 
Q2Ore Cy UNC ere DEN stir VI USCUUN areata stot etd ase ont a at's an gle «teitaPatele lls occa oyehatty, Shere nanan iO 299 
FO SAIN HSH AIO Y C Merete et eet ate sha ok Mey oh had Say op chats cops, 3. 6L8, 9 Soke oi sa, «8's joleke) s RRO Ree nes ae 299 
Ga ie key inaere el ierpontmViorgan aibtary fey. voles « feieeias« guia ae a et te Ae eed aR Base 300 
4a eee OV HC com Oritisiie VIOSCUII Roper ken cet ciety hehe) AS sve) evan eget As aye Ey pageame eh esek, ual atosehs 300 
aay ATiG EASE ALON Cm etme Pee el el tal seas 2s -opayelps, #3902 ple eds oes sa Rp hele ees 300 
Gyaeee yindetsy ea nierpont mviorgams Mabrary Wore. 7.5: sae onde ciel's Sas) Goedel ie dre haha ae A 300 
Oy ere ty Wider mde me letcd Catalogie 2 7 cise oite's ar «ia. ele sete.) niyiche'y oavete orate Nemes 300 
Om oy incet ss silts aly MSC eee te tea feet. era's Gian ols ohepheln oseyer ot “EAs Suaagaiel et eit 300 
Os pp yuicier Bi Dict ie dic NAUONAIC LS Bae Nen yi nsiale oye airy clos gil Gos ts eee ee 301 
O; eeCyiinders britisihuMuseum Pane es <r s cen de 2 oe hee euag ee olen ae mele Wipkenel bee « 301 
939. Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de Mithra, IPRS (Cre eeerer nn Crane metas, Ar tt 2) aRume yk CA 301 
Qzoge cylnder belonging (Ow sli a W Athi caw. even ig sit es ele etty ol apnieblietel- imines 301 
940. Cylinder, Metropolitan’ Museum)... 202... 6 oe See cee etree tin ee lae ns 301 
CPE MOAI aSPaDOVEr Ne tat alelg wth ces viata sie a npr « vieiphoalt » wise a syaieis ls Si oleih qym angus olaorely 301 
942. Cylinder, de Clercq Catalogue, 396....-...--- see e reece etree tee een tntneeernens 302 
Qs mOaiNc as aDGVSs 14 9S) ums Partita cis! elieie sols 2 26 ose ans 4 es ge tdlele ainaeln sp mnels «a ainiane ea 302 
O44 Gyunders inom tal CASt ane eres lgsiats oe os ws e ale'sl ore ony He a ose gieln ical ohne a sheath 302 
945. Cylinder, British Museum 0025-6 g ce ee ee ne es em tels eee de oa eine 303 
946. Cylinder, Bibliothéque Nationale, 908, A... 1.1... eee eee eee eee eens 304 
947. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library... 1.1.2... eee eee e eee ee eee ee teen ene 304 
948. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum ........ 0.0 cee eee cent eee t ete e renee 304 
949. Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de Mithra, LIJ,6.......... at ie feaisnlel Pah teiege oo -bakeguaet el 304 
son Same as above laW LI Geta on ks tice cede + elena SE ote eutinipia en tichsaseielsge sellin? oi 304 
g51. Cylinder, Bibliothéque Nationale, 407 .... 6... see eee eee eee teen e ete 304 
O52. Cylinders Berliner 3 1QOui rte sly + oe aie wre P= ew oy ne oe Rr aie iene wha dee - 304 
953. Cylinder belonging to M. Schlumberger ....... 6.06 e eset e eee peer eeees Od 
Os gr Cylinder, Britishy Museutngews .% <2) ng een ie oe sie oicle  e elaieccenra pe Mea elt a ope 304 
955. Cylinder, St. Petersburg, The Hermitage .... 6.6... cece etree eee eee eee ee 304 
g56. Cylinder, de Clercq Catalogue, 357.21... sees e cree teeter ete tee eee teens 305 
956a. Cylinder belonging to Mrs. Henry Draper. ....... 0000+ eee eee ee eee eee eee eee 305 
957. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum .........-.eee seer eee e eee e tenet erect eee ees 305 
958. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library 2.0.6... 0.0 eee eee eee eee ete ee teens 305 
Qs eSamclas ADOVEMe eT HG Sols ce tans hte oe Fhe ects ones pieieidigns sisinia tha’ olesbie aha ei 305 
g60. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum ....... +00 +e seer ere t eee rete ete eee eens 305 
GO Cylinders fromleat castes ths vies cao siete Bw anche Wee oe i peat ales diel moist 5 306 
g612. Cylinder, Vienna Museum .....-. 601s esse cere eee e erent eet ene eee ete te ten enes 306 
962. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library .... 0... sees eee eee eee ett teens 306 


963. Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de Mithra, XVII, 8......- +1 ++ eee e cece eee eee tence eens 306 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


064.. Cylinder, Metropolitan, Museum a. cise chests nei eters et eee 306 
9652: Sdmeias above se Grss ajuk oukleteen oes Gh arene) ate lysehas aber etal axel eam et me antennae 307 
966. Cylinder? Louvres AO 16228 ricerstaun stata cau .ie imac bo tote ier tomer reat tcin oe eee 207 
967.) Cylinder; [.aPierpont Morgan Library. ace aya echelons ne tee ota eee 307 
968.4 Cylinder kMetropolitan avi mseurn soy. eter etcta ane) eee i een eee 308 
969. Cylinders) |.¢PierpontViorgan: Library inoue... we te ie cee re ot oe 309 
9700 Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum 7. c14 ota. . 2 stout: aval 's ate ee en ee 309 
971 = Cylinder; Ji: Pierpont-Morgan Library y.0.7, |. ces. st. cee ee 309 
G7 2c Same las above: Wat. aye Meech ad sieve sehong tealaigs tel acta tana hae tale Se ee Zee eats Eee eC 309 
973. Cylinder;-MetropolitansMiusetumn 22. ta. ae ota» te ctah see aie ct ae 309 
O74 si Sane As above wena ieicteee utetere (seis rae a ahs Ncnwek iss oan hateeb eet ren inner ed et Ct ee te 309 
975 aCylinder,s).. Pierpont: Morgan Library;.y. . ).ssss-on eee one a ne ee ee 310 
976. Cylinder, «British: Museum ec fotie ka se + acslare elec 00 sneer 310 
9777 -,Cylinder, Metropolitan’ Mauser. sotere ye: co: cuca cae concrete ste ee eS Set eee ete 310 
9785, Cylinder de. Clercq’ Catalogives 2 84 ae ci. 'sr-tsnvs. « nuaneteinn ee tet see Re en we cet ih oie eee meena eae 311 
979.. Cylinder, British -Museum (205 sa.. o) cco. otehe 6 ole ay ete tects atte eet ee NE erect 312 
980, Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum « 6)) 5%.) . 05. cay. aa we ee. oR ee 312 
981. Cylinder, *M. Schlumberger shia. .c. oi «wt shonts nue cneeeadot ate ee estanet ticle ect ne ea ee 312 
gz... Cylinder; Bibliothéque7 Nationale; 457-5 i:.-5 or 8 een oe ea eee 212 
983.) Budge, Gods ofsthe. Egyptians; 11s p.279 sca ayats tee enti ae tate nyse a esteted trees cen a 312 
084.> Cylinder, Louvre igs): 2205 aietehe a's oa ool) of obie  Oeyelitntt erste erent a) Mises oy fg cee en ae 314 
O85. Cylinder; ‘fromva Cast) 2m sais a oe oid «shew oot ana etare mene Giant cates henna = nee een eee 314 
686. Cylinder, j; PierpontsMorgan Dibrary 2s .upcge a. eee sin = ee ce ene 314 
987. Cylinder, Metropolitan) Museum: 73 0s 4 ssi tenets aes feet ee enter ete 215 
O88. Same as above lie pie decece: alskat oat tihottths cl re URGE A RN Ache se a 215 
989. Same astabove owe os pic vi gies eat chert eile. a) siete Hien l ofall: net cumtnn ka ene one MSR sce cn ne 315 
ggo._ Cylinder," Pierpont: Morgan Labraryy gaia es oa en ee ee 215 
O91. SaMe as.abover sy. seis dens Mottaret Gu a aan aislies dine anelio Stelle ean Mn Oy spay, cho eee 315 
992. Same! as above 5s. sso dsere od osha ea Gace Olav! alc: Wee Sen Ne, aR GRINS fle SY car ee peers a 
993. Cylinder; Metropolitan Musetimi) ire vas ceca « as ays abies eee Een a ar een 315 
994. Cylinder, University of: Pennsylvania ss 240. 3s sete 2 a ie ae en ean 315 
Ogg. Same as above 22. ste lee cx Mie sae Sls oe cate RN ee Lt ed Be TR eee 315 
996; Cylinder, Metropohtam,Museum 23... = s\7 suo Sere ial rete one ee reget 315 
997: Cylinder, British Museum® sic ac pe tas ce ga ee ee NO ere ne era 316 
998: Cylinder belonging to Lord. Perey (3% hasap vse vee se ce ee es 316 
999- Cylinder; |. Pierpont:Morgan Jabraryy rc, « :.-0 2 5 eee eee ee 316 
1000. Cylinder belonging’ to: Mrs.s Henry Draper ja. 2 eee re ee 316 
roo1; Cylinder; Louvre 2h ie oa Gir ee sas aye cols 9 seo sierclabelattpers cauiegetnv eke ae ei mae, eater Us ee eoe 316 
1002. Cylinder, British) Museums. fae aoa. ce weet: ae eye ere oe ee ee 317 
1603;; Same. as above! a5 2. 24h emer. d cyerace cre vue A Raelave eae 6, Ske ol a cphingh ene aura |< eae 317 
1004.5 Cylinder, Berlin, VA2g217% a5 we acsnyu sete os aro Gn othe Siete che) oUt ee, ss eae 318 
1005. Cylinder, Lajard; Culteide Mithra, XIX 3) 5). yasmin tute ieee eee 2 ee ee 318 
1006sSame as above, XX VELL a eae Teale ih ica k avar ee Nettie at ce nents wea mee ote ee 318 
1007, Cylinder belonging to Miss Idenry Draper eats samt i tO re en 318 
1008, Cylinder, J Pierpont: Morgan Librarys. a. sts 0 a4 eens eeers ete nets erm te) ents eee 318 
toog. Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale, 7 8Qtae wae <4) 2 ctl rs «reer ee etre a 318 
1010.) Cylinder, J. Pierpont’ Morgan Library2.5 2 6. a1. 5 x eevee one leet eee ere 319 
ror. Cylinder, Louvre sca yc 5...5:6 ce woes 9 tie cies olen Seep e arene 200 Ss a ee 319 
1012. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library 2.9) ssee ee eee tere ennai cts Gai Olea) etre ee ee rea a 319 
1013. Cylinder; British (Museum. as. 2 c25 cau 6 ee alge ose on erty meee eens ni ee 319 
1014. Cylinder, J. Pierpont- Morgan Library Sie y os > etre teeenee eco nse eee 319 
LOLS s Same ds above. cess la aes oe « aps ohd stops. coon ohare o ecen es em RteL eet es acts fates eee: 319 
toisa¢. Cylinder, froma cast... 0.45% i 5it< Wi gn yess peel beretenste nna keteio. Gite ether oe omens i 319 
1616. Cylinder, Lajard; Culte de Mithra @X DI Xina gon, cai, ote ene cc ce 319 
1017: Cylinder, Metropolitan’ Museum....2). 5 ss<)s 051, co ohh fei siete ere iy geery neuer une 319 
1018, Cylinder, from) a cast. 8 baie sibs cee ee sae oe nies seeks ast ett cine ian eee ee eee 320 
101g. Cylinder, Lajardy Culrexde) Mithra,) 0,03". 1. 46.2 see che 3 ee pnnne cen vere are nee ee 320 
TO20,°Same as: above; (XIX, 5 654 ys ade se eats cern aie eee ate eetieng sis arian a ee ne 320 
1o21T. Cylinder, Metropolitan Musetimy. < hr cca icin be eisee ete et ainsi tee een ae acti ae 321 
1022. Cylinder*belonging to; W Harding Smiths 2.00% <0. ar. tsetse tet Ba 
1023, Cylinder, J Pierpont: Morgan Library xy «<5 55s a cin epee ctete ee a ones tae 321 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXV 


Poe dete Ger ued Culte de-IViithra, XX X11: 7500, lk ou UAE de ns «A wise icine 321 
FOZ8 taee VINEE MOUNT es) COMMER TH Meee ust win fA} ace Cas GR ee ME Le mio Go: Hino ee 321 
1026. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan TABCArY nen ence tee Oe eR ye eee ee hk B21 
Lcd tome aia CD OV CM eet, Serene Te ha ily kid lois Valeo iol eee int os ho aa tulew 321 
10274. Cylinder belonging to Mrs. Henry Drapery £6 Sie eee eee eer eos, aa ear on eo 321 
L277 Ome Gras a OV ea wee tery ta Ret Eye WIA ev cad ite Ss «els Pte Re hs Gea oe 321 
fOsv ray nuchal icrpontuvioroan Library @ dyis0s 45/4 es ws ncatactoe bie ca ke nae 321 
LZ See VIIDECT AUTISM LSE NI erage Vit Mec eal tee Fcact tila a ech te mc ob e ace eri ae. a23 
Doe 0 waCay Undera a LichpOncs orga Luibfary i. 0. lu) eek gist tA eine one ce 323 
Lon Omer ynCee a VICHODOUAT IVI USEUIT J's Gc oleae ces ia he ait OREN Cale oe: 323 
Poo mice RCE cbt tise Vi \ScliMa aka wernt tse nan ee sit Ae AC et be 323 
EO eau in gra DO VOM a aM Lenn ih te Bal sot a we cts ah cidade ee L LE ROR ee ne See 323 
LOGS mauy Mich st Ola ADSL UM Pression he wees a iss foe oes Hote cues Co ee a23 
POS Aree ner ee C1elCqy CAtalORues200: ity a Se oo ute has weakens Ae eae Ceres mee 324 
Lone ue VINCer aLVersitveOrebennsy Vania, 1828 0%. sce «ca sos ion eee ae ee ee 324 
Foo Ou yiunder belonging toulvirsy Facury. Draper o/s. sin ogden s Os oe ce he eee ean ee oe 324 
LO mc VNGer wiv crLOpolitalys VilSCUIINE Ly... ne sys osc ada aah aoe Rea ke B25 
1s 8 apa Gens AD OV ume Matec OMS cles ssc els aa sso oie st Ubi NG I one oe a2s 
103 0 mesa Ter as AD OVE Se ee eet eee as 6 cute 1) VGE SC use MERE ie ak hee ee 325 
LOA OnesainG, AS ADOVOs sees cent cP eine. oie oe er ene Ces Parente ol BAe Cs 
SO A AINE ta OV OMe TE caterer, Shag lyr Sis ales nts a wisg bs oe 8) oo 6 ee EE ie ee 325 
TOA Zagee VAIN cr uae ieLpOMta Organ al iDtanys me...i a's. sfee s/e shale oe Laue meee ee 325 
NGA sea VN der SNicerOPOM IAT IVIUSEUIs eit mo 4h". 5c. Pe! Sioa fits Gate Maske ae, ORE GRE TE 325 
DOA At ey ere Orisa VLUsCUli an Meng nse uefa sc OE, oe ge ie. x. om «cuss ames te eee Meee a25 
DAS omMeyDIaC! mg Cie tees eee treme AE I Bouts vers ha whe. urge Cobpawie it sigh ke ois here pias: einer ite 326 
POPU mae ile crauVlemOpOMtaneWUISeUM ego. for, Vhs op coi walt cae Cie cate to ities eee aia 326 
RAT eV Cle CUNT IAG) 1D ES Ase RR artis 0G sas os ak GMO AG Mud sae ese aot ee can ee 326 
MOAis MC WAING CLUS OUE AMCASL Ed Eee Teen PSO aC ah Ss. shi Aine piv a ea Uti om § cue REN Genre esa 327 
forme vilidermyicnanterierres Csravees; Als pL IX, fig, 1 ace ie ee eee oe ea B27, 
LO OMe Y Inder epiniornequenNatOnale, 00/2 nhc. 1.6 si wee oe SENOPOR Adit remich tLe eat: eek s 
TOR Moa onde ADOVer OS 28 (frame nie. Re vheate ou fcc ck Ne os Sts eRe te ce gon ae tee cea 327 
TOR me VUDOCE LOMA LC ASC Mee euete lene) fist ts sho 6 wire 816) oem, doch @ nakcun eae ae  ee n  o) ee 328 
EO ey ake VMN er a NV LCEDODOREATE IVLUSCUIT saree sais acl ais, « 0 aio svete ney Mud ovate a eee ous A 328 
ie ie MELO TENORS? TOUT gupatyon NY hip Eig ag Diy Vole ge pmmyripce eee Bas Bele Gans meats AN cach Wel ey els 328 
On Pm VINCE eNL et Opolitane WAMSCUNT . 5G. a talc. co ot oe. sh oeauneee Ole sit cet AO iene eo 328 
pon Grae nc ela Dibotnedies NavoOnale, 050... 2)4',i. ss: cuore siersprtecly otek: Ones ies 328 
RO eae uns AUOVGseA S Oley reticle Ceded osc ole Ds 6 Gyo. oe Fie phat nee oye oot oem aneyeeMe in Wiere shades 328 
LOS me ViNGeEs VEO POCA AVIUSEUIN coun chelh eis. 6 wis obs, s ca 4 6 114% eauh atin ce oluen 2 inc, ese 328 
CO) < emCeN IN Cite OUT CR RE mem Cele bunk) aug ss ae Sev gogo shat Ske petra ames agy ate 328 
OC Covina eh maeuk eECQeCoata loge 9 LO i cise wc. s'est OU bE eee eras olan eee tha 328 
TOO Ion punder siouorneque Nationale, 40Sp cc. s+ ss 5s ceieG aeons cee ee es ale oe eee 328 
foo2 sty iden iaceseNinverets Assyrie IIIs plix70, Ow. tek cee taf eae sues a oe yaks 329 
POSE (tine eden HOEY OVE ee Ogeeeaimeronn © Gotorsa cic es Hine ayaa ai bo air 330 
DOO Aaa rkad SOV Gir tee ee eae ET chao cts, Se Nl eid oe wen cele eeeie euglaus ean seca ec « i tele 330 
Lob ue VnGey a OritisielVIMSCUTMME Geen ce wands a. dost esl eee ee ate) 9 oie an Ge eae oe eos ce aes ca 330 
ROOC Mey Inder e victrOpOitane Vi USeUIN 28 cin gitei's voles «eur olen ie tke oe wings ete eA gt eis eiciie 330 
BOO pac Vincerc eC 1ehcQ aia OOVC sag O46 fy iage was Gue + ayn ol © « cleuie isis 9 ale Gua Gira ished sacha cities 330 
Wooo rue uncer alana aeulte ce ivilthta, 6 IN 102 jen cia inie @ ae sir operkratee sete Chae si ann 
1660.00 vlinder Vi etropolitans VIUSCUIN Ss «te. ya. re wo a noe unig etn i ete ns ir ree ie ok ne 331 
Vovo:. Cylinder,.de Glercq Catalogue, 2110). 0b% epee ey ey ee ale ye em eda case 231 
LO7 Ione vundervietropolitan Museum. oie. ea. mc wiake ies cae oh eee se ae ce 2 oye ones B= = a3% 
Toye eC VnCer enroute Cast amc (As. bs sieis firm oor e eee Wh ayes bine Megahans «Glens enue nla wg i 3 n oa 
TO7d mervunider,sLOUyre, AO228 4202s vis volo 6 ou 0s so ret oe eo ees © lane sa ase = 231 
1074. Cylinder, J) Pierpont Morgan Library . 2.2... 2266s ese eee e tee nee cece eens oh 
Oye ery linger, vOritishe WViMSeUN 68) ccs ce «ees ee mln se Hee Ses eos = nisin poe maar eete ck tis mas a) a3 
1076. Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de Mithra, SOX Vip iF. aie ety ae ee teeta ea eon ee oe cen eee Recs (a ora 331 
1077. Cylinder, Bibliothéque Nationale, de la Chapelle, 17.... 2.0.0... sees eee ee eee ee eee a22 
Logo aG winder eLouvic $A OZO12 cer. im oy mie atin Sain aly he an Seg cP a ging saa os wn 9) 432 
1079. Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum. ....-. +e es sere eee cette nent eee e eee ees agz 
1080. Cylinder, de Clercq Catalogue, 370 Diss... cece eee e eee teen e eects 332 
1081. Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale, 951 2.0... . cee eee e eee eee tee eet eee ees a42 


XXVI1 


1082. 
1083. 
1084. 
1085. 
1086. 
1087. 
1088. 
1089. 
1090. 
1ogl. 
1092. 
1093. 
1094. 
1095. 
1096. 
1097. 
10974. 
1098. 
1099. 
1100, 
1101. 
1102. 
1103: 
1104. 
1105. 
1106. 
LIo7. 
1108. 
110g. 
L110. 
nee 
Eiiz. 
1114. 
1114. 
en St 
1116, 
IL t7. 
Wi ben 
1119. 
PL203 
Lie te 
Vi2z2e 
Wigs. 
1243 
Lizs: 
1126. 
Ti 27. 
Lr20. 
Li 2O 
Ne he Kee 
Hiais 
ite WA 
1133. 
Dig4; 
11344. 
1135. 
L130: 
LI37. 
1138. 
L130. 
1140. 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Cylinder, sLajard XX Vy-4 hasan statis she eee cee ee ie ee cede ee enero Tee ee 332 
Cylinders froma Cast) 78 ra lnc ce sei Cee te eee One cn na ee x32 
Cylinder; Berlin SVAb 6:3 terete, Sa ee cae See eee ate ye ne eee ee att oe ee nee 
Cylinder“ MetropolitanaMuseumy sara. nosey eeme © CRONE Gee nn tien it ete era 333 
Same”as abovekeeegin, fo aie Seno A eta, ameter enn ae eee Mio ene meee te ect n ee tere ene mt 333 
CylinderLiverpool: Museums states re: cen ise ne ee ces Ree ose ten ete 333 
Cylinder, -IMetropolitan’ Miusewin 04,5 Sena, Settee een ee ee ee ere ee 333 
Cylinder, Bibliotheque’ Nationale; 4448s. veerer.. o) ns rs eee ene eae eee 333 
Cylinder,: | Pierponts Morgan] abrary seria arc eee raeetats eee ee et 233 
Cylinder, Louvre, NUN BT Gog penn. cman: aulsters were are eee see ee meee ae ene eee 233 
Cylinder Metropolitan Museum, 7c oc-s cietsieales smokin ae Westin cet ene eee ene on ee 333 
Cylinders Bibliothéques Nationale; de la. Chapelle; 1S steve eo eee ee te ee 334 
Cylinder, Brinish Viuseamuy ccs care sure cia bes clerk ea ae eee er tee ee RRC eo eee 334 
Cylinder? J PierpentslViorpanutabraryears eaves) clear enn. eee ren ate ee te eee ee 334 
Saitié:as above Wyo ee wre eee se oe Sek es sine Ce ec eee setae 3 ee ie cee 334 
Samie+as: abOVem: y wuts sere ie Se aN, acs Ce eon eh aia tths Me Site ee tee, Meee as Ree et eee 334 

Cylinder, St.Petersburg lhe Plermitage sss yee ki ee ere rer eee eee ee ee eee 334 
Cylinder Lord Dorneneeaaicn acre ec cers che ce Be te ee ee ee eee 334 
Cylinder,, J..PierpontyMorgan Eibraty) 2. «0. 20. ee Gees Oey een oe ee eee 335 
Cylinder, Metropolitansiuseunt yang en oe parce at oe Rees caer rete eee ee 335 
Same as*above tetas iy, ree ass 6 yo Ven tok Sie te ety pe ere it eee et eee eee 335 
Cylinder, Metropolitan Museums 22.8 pcs Game oe oper Cee ee eee ee ce 335 
Cylinder, de. Clereq Catalogue; 13 69% sa cr ase, eerie eee ee te Pay eee 335 
Cylinder} British Museuniume mec be se oak Rhee ek Ghee ara e cee nee eereees ee ec eee 336 
Cylinder, [> Pierpont Morgan’ Library” 90 ican cesents et an ees ene ee eee 336 
Cylinders Metropolitan Museum, ....5\y Seem «ty © ce tee a eee ne een ete ne ote een 336 
Same as aboveriu.(crsvame as <6 < cases Udy Sie | BE a iaancan es or eae teeter) see atone ee eee 336 
Cylinder; fromita ast a72o). se ciels tau tele oae «iat dus Ol meant te eee eee eae ee ee er 336 
Cylinder; Metropolitan). Miuseam: 50). ose ec ete ee ee ee ee 337 
Cylinder, lajard sCulte de. Mithra, Lil ey ocr te een nie = ree ee eee 337 
Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum, 20.5 ee oo eee ne eee ee ree 337. 
Cylinder, J“ Pierpont Morgan \Labraryo. .72 2's 5 foes ote eee ee eee eee 337 
Cylinder, from: a Cast. 2. ego's. ik neta ee else che eet en eaae ot ig aiertet yates eee: Mee cee meena B37 
Cylinder, Lajard;, Culte-de: Michra, LIV, Ars tgs os ee eee ee ee ene 237 
Cylinder, MetropolitantMuseum 3205 9.2 bse ee oe eee et ee een es ee eee aa7 
Cylinder, from a:cast “Gras 5 2.05 eas oY ban ck > cae Oe ete a ke ee eile en So enemies B37 
Cylinder, “Culterde Wlithraye lol, ic ag otrnaae cee. sn = Poet eke st Reece a enero errr 338 
Cylinder; British Musetm ¢.:..:'25 oc. am cu es oomele ee cn eta et eran © eng ne nes ene 338 
Cylinder, Louvre; AOZ405 Sova in oes wes ee cee os nets Oe een me eee ee eee 338 
Cylinder, British Musewinest 2 se ie eee tes oe ce Pe oe ene en eee 338 
Cylinder, J: Pierpont: Morgan’: Library 00 ss. ies tree sees oue ee ee errs a eee 338 
Cylinder, Metropolitan Museuny  cc2 5 ce rote 2s ee © eee ee eee ene 338 
Cylinder, Lajard; Culte de Mithra,) [a VEL iG ee are ee eee ee ee veer eee 338 
Cylinder, ; Fromi‘aseaster i712. cS aerete memtios 6 cud Soe gee chatacters ee 339 
Cylinder, British Museum! 0, agin sats sp ew eink ote esl tine olin eet ener e eae as enema 339 
Cylinder, froma; cast |..0 slots Ge ctaoae tees buslelln. stab) circle ita Rice neo agent oleae eee te ee ea 339 
Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de’ Mithray XV 5°40). 4. icie ase te ei oe se vet re 339 
Sameéas above, NING 35s Sees aw wee fie are ee oe eee girs Che ent Ce em ete 339 
Cylinder, Metropolitan \Museun 27,1. = tee. = arts ene es «ae cn ee te een 339 
Same: as’above ye fe aw ee a ee ee terre ne Oe et ae ee eee 339 
Cylinder, Layard; Culte de (Mitra, XX.V 5 Les. «eee netene re ete oe erties tate eeu eats 339 
Cylinder,: British’ Museum i... 5s wracote iene oo aon te ret ee deme ees oe ence emer are 339 
Cylinder,’ J. Pierpont: Morgan, Library 22 paces: sie = sey etees stern ec neste ne ogee eee enc 339 
Cylinder; Metropolitan Museums. ste mens se emt © aie cc tine ee te te enn eee 339 
Same’ as above s/s os cen nw eta lere eels lap meat 6 neues Uae Mage eae le men) Rie etme 339 
Cylinder; Bibliothéque Nationale, 408 227k vir cre tame eee a eee tents ll te cote eta Ree 339 
Cylinder, Berlin; VA3022 257 es. cates we Siete airt seee at eee fenestra giteere 340 
Gylinder, «British Mi aseum, 2°05 pits sa ik aes alte eee rete elena or ster, weit aan enna 340 
Cylinder, Louvre; AD 2700) e257 cue wa ae eee be erie a vie eet se 0 ee ate ne ee 340 
Cylinder, froma cast 02:2 2 5 ffivare evel aie stereos Bie eaette aegtepte eset Ba) ee secs een tate neem 340 


Cylinder, M- Schlumberger ..). emcees ate secre stile en teens ee eo tetee oer het mea atonement 340 


1141. 
1242. 
iia3: 
1144. 
1145. 
1146. 
LTAz. 
1148. 
(149. 
1150. 
List. 
Tag 2. 
1153. 
1154. 
1S. 
1156. 
ie 
es 8. 
1159. 
1160. 
1161. 
1002. 
1163. 
1164. 
1165. 
1166. 
1167. 
1168. 
1169. 
if (ogee 
gl, 
L172, 
Lig. 
1174. 
1175. 
1176, 
Vy Fs 
1178. 
1179. 
1180. 
1181. 
1182. 
1183. 
1184. 
1185. 
1186. 
i937: 
1188. 
1189. 
1190. 
L198: 
3 oy 
1193. 
1194. 
1195. 
1196. 
1107. 
1198. 
1199. 
1200. 
1201. 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXVII 


Cynder, ieulaioy ses Acropole, de: ouses fig 3 38.40 .sclos vane die, sf area dears 340 
Cynder, La~ragoute desVMithrawi VIL; 2 2. nutham oe OF ee ae ee 34.0 
ByinGer Louvre tA G)tC OOM mM Gree ome kt, Ge Ge RM Ege i aD 340 
Cylinder, Bibbotheque Nationale; dela Chapelle, 116... =... cian 98) de geet corny wis ona hte « 340 
Sy UnGers lore IGCOONEVIONOan cLabrary 2. 1) evi aps dutee ee a cbadyeen om. oa. As, caacanict es 340 
Gy linderm marda < witescae: Miithtay LLV ir Ceo at cas 0d o's ein RE a aie aoe 340 
Sy UNG Cree itis lim VISCUM ee tS 6 cine o/s Sete seer 1s Re RE PAAR eae. 4 340 
Gyilindersuevy woeeelsuacGemmen, pl. |], fig. 4d» ators eeeater det deonteeaiee Gh, eerie: 341 
SAN ePaStaDOV Gy 1g a1 wenn cree Cok oe APNE ae ao, Gh eI dha, ath Oe. 341 
AVNER svOlrer Lens VCOKM@ Ney. L1e cin ntsis-ts 4G + Gis SeNaBiey nomnals Ee oe ie eee 341 
Kyunicers ew ercdns AlalOp Nese) 2 la onici er ait on eoniah scab wines caeaa nee satin castes G 341 
Gyimder ele Pierpont, (Vicrpanelibratyaes 92 8,204 telat ke te eteaieioe ee eA nade ioe has 341 
CVIINGETMPUTICS MAVEVIOCIT Ie ou «eo. wink tciit. na, «ewe Ws enn pian ees evant. sese ameter: 341 
SSIS IRS AO) CERNE Ekn tea. ee Opes G gee tio = ct Sac in Ae coin Ace Satad deracah AES ovale oes, 342 
EHC ORME Veveh ig! \ Jee A clltcy uckdal Mique, GRR RGEC pe a a ae ee eee eevee De yal a 342 
SaMerasa DOV wets Mie ome mete cate chord 2 meat oils au ana xtchs aia ieee dag i cans, sane geek we eps 342 
SAME rasta OV cent men pe MEER RN IN Mare ae Ne ac SI ces ch oe. wid wn e Abs oan > hehe amnesia a BE PE 342 
Gylind ere lie pence esnGlas. CV PTUs, cA MARE etna Moc cn) let's shane t saute Metead gue Esher t 344 
Se uder mo bmeraiccheRicnter shy Dros stexttiye 6 fe one ce «5s x 2 chlo ee en Gears dee 344 
Sylinderwie  mcmC esnola wy pins, nN WN sed Matai eue eee ce « «ys oa aed a a ee eeeoeuele 344 
AMC As rADOVE Me Ak 8 Coe cee cr TCU Ne eGo a oat ine Sages nceltmiemabeiaeeee Seah & 344 
ylmder mab ealecresnOlay oaldinlgla pO MT AO) tts Coe 5 ie/a sts apap cedh ceeemig a maniaets « 344 
SAME SrA DOVG see wL Vea emer een PME ere BA Nas Skis os bros aie Ue caplet Mente bn lat 5 344 
Gylmderelieb ec Cesnola, Cypricte Antiquities, [1] plo CX VIUL, 48 tk cua we eer 344 
Cylinder, Proceedings Society Bibliothéque Archeology, XXVII, p. 254............006. 345 
Copier men di sc esnolapovprue ple XXL, fig. 12.6 cssglt «2 eee Par Wing eae 345 
yin eryruen ered Catalogue, 40 cin fat, is eaaeicty cs ig «es whan or « Seeks OR aie eee 345 
Syiinderel web 7ci,Cesnola, Coy prs ON 3,1 kyle sty whe icin Ge werunne cia ag eee ous 345 
DdIMeras BDOVes eS WEL PRTC ety Se kc oles Fo aeaue ss ts wines, adh ani eeteu ae Mat Cieegege one is 345 
Samie ds above, Laahaau Cesnola, Cypriote Antiquities, [1], CXX, 10 2.0 ide au AT 
Sameras above wwe eur esnolagoalaminia, plaAll 6.) 0. 2. ss cies eure ae eke = 347 
DAI erAstH OVC NDIge VLE Srhem Rh mini ys' GAME a) p's <Ehsheher- Punta hd cymes ae ound 347 
Gainer as ADOVETD tL Vigne 08 ey ALUN alin > w/e (die AE (she epeie Pat Ceiaunate = Ate er" ousted i> 347 
DaIMerasADOVe.e plat igen ee Steak cians +s win os os Syne mueneee, gre Mtoe Ri ahr lee cee hs 347 
Sarcefasia DOVE = cae, Cees et ie ci: SE akan lect aheatacee(ts vppetunes Boule sath oleae Meuecceuas Benne 347 
Saletas a DOVCM2 Hemet fetus faldicley abv les Win gisie sie elg gel ocala es alamo aati ay “S47 
SAE Al aDOVe MAM ren Ree ey ee he eos ee es mo 5 Soe wd em tis cpa cunt ah 347 
Cynder, clereceCespola, Cyprus, XXXII 26) 0 a ess eit ye ins et eae 47 
Cylinder, A. P. di Cesnola, Salaminia fig, 138........-.2.ee se cw enews e enn en seces 347 
SamerasiabOVe pic LV | geal 2 fy clas sea 9 die «eh WS aes tay? ao ink ® eee oun aioe Jo. 348 
Samer astabovien pres Om eee cea: piety ie args ig alctp sie) a live 0e oy mete ous pray See, xeaetio fe etm 348 
Satie aarahoveriperO Wma eee sen viv noe eee ae Oe dSeel ee > Gree cele oe bide g 348 
Gamers ADOVE MGA SIGS ee Hiv tes cu uche ole olde Mucueptletotede leas orery te Deir: 2.39 
Cylinder, L. P. di Cesnola, Cyprus, pl. XXXI, Q 22.6.0. sce e rece rece ee ence te eeees 348 
Sameras abovey ple nk MLL 62 SEG 28 pi. coins © Yh 615 ins mw a elileyasye s aiekauein ee = es aw ae = . 348 
Sale asm boven DAOC IMB Ed, pra eet r). Gita « pets Goo suena asco Ma ell cial lembha tam 4 348 
Cylinder, A. P. di Cesnola, Salaminia, pl. XIV, 46.0.2... -- cece eee ee ee eee e eens 348 
Cylinder, L. P. di Cesnola, Cyprus, XXX1, § 0.2. 6-2-5 ee cee eens we eae we ne sees 348 
Saiieraseabove mpi Ks MULE 24 29 aa we seen ot oe NS oi ae ee als Sith we o 348 
Cylinder, A. P. di Cesnola, Salaminia, fig. 130 ©1116. essen ee teen ee te eee eee eee 348 
Same as pOve pl OL 62206 oak sos ale 8 «SS eb en bed Pine ini sy 48 Simba a ape oe oCahey chan 348 
Sametadiaboves DIX LINE Z0% 1 aa & oe gsiy aie oleae Sel abe Teds ten me Beta cin ea od noe > 349 
Sameas above, pl. XLIL) 28. pao ihe = siete x ale o/eye/cimyales <tapondionegeianenle [eleaga lg he Anas y 349 
Cylinder, L. P. di Cesnola, Cyprus, pl. XXXH, 15 ...........00---- a a ee ce 349 
AC TASTADOV.E 1S TMB E ee oe he i Gis ocng bie woe neg Sie oa See 2 = aslo eo semen wicaa un rlo 349 
Gametas above, pleX KALIL, 305 ses ear u anon gsr eens UF OMe ~eIbInRa wcities oa = 349 
Cylinder, A. P. di Cesnola, Salaminia, pl. XII, 10.0.2... 0. eee eee eee ee eee ees 349 
Cameras above T IIee On aia e a co +6 siuhebaptng, » yap erties nai poesia ale 349 
Garmictas a DOVEML SIIRGEE. suas o's vo boves Said: © am cwhayieee dle agent «iciieig br ayes bhn dec Ie e349 
Gameras above 1 Ot oe cs ve cele a nies ote ce eirue ee ewan aekekete ola, Gaal alas? <5 349 
Same as above, p. 120, fig. T3945 oo kien ati RUE ar ohdlorenarn te entrench le wie ogee xl) 23.4.9 


XXVIll 


1202" 
1203. 
1204. 
1205. 
1206. 
L207; 
1208. 
1209. 
VALS), 
iit 
eae 
12043 
1214. 
As ie 
L206, 
207% 
Tee 
1219. 
TP APHO) 
ee 
awe, 
229% 
1224. 
i253 
1226. 
227% 
1228. 


12284. 


1229. 
1230. 
12a ks 
C242; 
T2722. 
1234. 
(ye Nsy. 
1236. 
123.7. 
233: 
R230: 
1240. 
1241. 
1242, 
re43) 
1244. 
1246. 
1246. 
1247. 
1248. 
1249. 
1250; 
1251. 
L252. 
T2535 
zn 4. 
25s 
1256. 
1Z57. 
1258. 
1259. 
1260, 
1261. 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


CylindersyAceP: edi: Cesnolay salaminiays pai 20, ge) 310) eee ee ree ee ee 350 
Sameras above spi-tz0, fip'136 gun 1 ck se ae en te ne ee eee 350 
Sameras above, pli XIII {18 Wana. S85 se pt See ee ee tee te ee ete ee 
Sameras abovey pl. XTIL sre tit oh 8 ay 5 iets hs eee ete ae eae See 350 
Cylindere Po di CesnolapXXxl lita ee Luk sara eee mee nr cane © Ret een eae 350 
Cylinder, Britishy Museums ook coe Ge Be ee tee he ee ee ne eee 351 
Cylinder > Metropolitan Museum.) 2tee sess ed he es eee tee eres 352 
Cylinders-[<-Pierpont: Morganalibrary) cab enen= osteeet e nnee Pee x ee ee eee 353 
Cylinder) Lajard}CulteideuMithra eX X15 8 eee ee ce ene ae ot er ree en oer 353 
Cylinder ;:J#-PierpontMlorgan) Librarysie sn oe ee cee oe eee nee ee eae 353 
Cylinder,» BibliothéquedNationale;-4.18 {2h 22 2eae.ct ee ees te eet eer ee 353 
Cylinder," Tassie; Catalopuerof.aGemss plalik,iz 2am sere et ey ee Seer ae, ee ee 355 
Cylinder, *Dieulafoy. iA cropoleide Suse; fig, 34.1 .eemire cm ae eee eet ete ee 355 
Cylinder, <Victoria’and Albert) Miusenmas ee aot oe ete een eee te eee 355 
Cylinderyeftom. a cast Mass ten eee went pee wn oe SNS eee ONC MTOR See eee 356 
Cylinder,.de: Morgan, Delépation en Perseg VII hg ei 2eee, ee oe eee 357 
Sameias:above; figs 11's tien tite eee © RRB. Gait cs Sie ete et ee Re rtaet ye ec, One 57 
Same'as. above, figei iO, Ce. hee ule aoe os serene than a eee eerste ree a Oe 357 
Same’as above, sAgcZOmratn, vee erie eRe ec leke re see ee inane ae Re rr ene ec en Pe ene 357 
Sameas. above figst22° 2.5 pias Se, Be oe ee NRE, ER chet Geo Oe 
Same as above, fig.:3'3"s ag kh eas.8 oe cee Ae fe ba Ge secs eet coh SRO RAG Pare nt a 358 
Same as. above, fig. "4.4, saute ats © Seales cris Ge alee as ene GEOR en BRL a. fe ene ane 358 
Same as. above, fig. 46: stecen § o's 20! Ue, bya: s Susana be She eee te ane a ee an de A 358 
Same as above, pli ly figa 1s. gucci 2 wea S ee teeta ale ence ee, ee, wee oe 358 
Same’as above; pli, fig s253 %1. 2.5 0S es esa e Seeks role ta. carp nets eae nee 358 
Satine as‘above, plo VINE, figs 54%. A a0 om spate «aun inc Soe eR we a, Ce eee 358 
Sameyas above, fig.’ 99 .unG sk. '. bhe bata Gig aln nhs Stem ole ae an enteeaatetTC rei anee oh eciayie tar ene mee Cenee 359 
Impression on’ tablet,'de Morgan;Delégation’en Perse, Vly pl. 240eme ss ae eee ee 359 
Cylinder; MetropolitansMuseum, 5. s5.0, 6 22-25 oye eo oie aaee sree eee ee em 360 
Same: as ‘above 5 sh Ws TRE. EOD Re ees, 5 ee ema ea cee re 360 
Daltile. as abOVes a cA vba tues Aires + beh Mince bh cteeete Gr ateth ec AMORA apa Oh 2 ane ee 360 
Cylinders)|? Pierpont, Morgan ‘Library. <5 2 som maces ee cy as ee 360 
Cylinder, Rich, Second, Memoir, fig) 10275... eee ane Eke ols aR? ee mE Se 360 
Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum: 05, i¢ 2s 2 s-65 os ga scs coe sis sever eee aie ae ate ee eaten 360 
Bas-relief, de Morgan; D elégationcen Perse, 12 pi 31020. wees me ase ee 361 
Cylinder, Proc. Society Biblical Archeology, Feb.uioS2..p.ai seamen ue ae eee ie 361 
Cylinder, Louvre, AQ 2371 2 c5 coats okt s 3.8 > el ame Reet ss vis desea eet ee eR 361 
Cylinder, Louvre, MINB 1207 <2 eac Gis. sche peta ie oti ena tenes eect wea tae oe 361 
Cylinder, Metropolitan’ Minsewm. ci, 55.7. 21 te. tn cees ease eral oe Na Potente Eee tetera tese 362 
Cylinder, Heuzey, Origines Orientales, px 41 i. cl. cheer oun creer ete tee teeter 8s lei reine 362 
Cylinder, British. Musetinii. 3.2 se 5 os eves aoe Maes fre Ae nes ole ee ere me 362 
Cylinder, de*Clereq \Catalogue;:86). 5 cir =< oc) ee «ns eye os ie cee oe ee ee 362 
Cylinder, Lajard) Cultede\Mithra,’X XV 101 31 zee sceeen) at ete ee eee 362 
Cylinder, Metropolitan Museum; 5..7.). ee ates «oh oe oem vies enema ty aoe Re cen 362 
Bas-relief, Hilprecht, Exploration in, Bible Lands, p.947 67.0 ee sre te cee te eee 362 
Cylinder, Harvard) Museum 1105.02 «Ges me ot cine Mee ois te eat rere eto ee meee 363 
Cylinder, Metropolitan’ Museums 250 ue hs te ny ee erie ier) oot ees oils 363 
Cylinder, Berliny VA293 1200. ia). devine oe oe ene ee ke ee ee gE og ernie nee a 363 
Cylinder, de Clereq (Catalogue 1412. aia. wavs = oe wipe ie teen tre te da AO ree 364 
Gylinder; dé Sarzec;-Découvertes;: plist gO Dist ues set eer re oe ee 364 
Bas-relief, Hilprecht,-Babylonian Expedition» 1, pl..X 5 figsn3 7 ae ee eee eee 364 
Bas-relief, de Sarzec, Découvertes; pla lL Vian <: coos elaine: ee ett en eee ae ne 364 
Altar,’ Layard, Monuments of (Nineveli,:11, pl04 5 secon sere ee ee es eee er 364. 
Cylinder, British Museums 240% 2...c00) tote cle 2 piu eente © ee meMgte ane tt enc cea ev 365 
Same as above’. sos ses Sk ~. s'5 05 GRE wie en cdo 0 ole en Oe eee ete ee a 365 
Cylinder, Louvre; crown\NB 370 :c% cp.ims sre eine as eanlts BRMUMONE tars elec eg et ety ers 365 
Gates of Balawat Bev 2%. ov cA 64 Oo PRs A er ert eae eee 366 
Altar, Botta; Monuments de Niniye; V, p..1§.2 22m cnt moe eee ee ete 366 
Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de Mithra, ive vie: ie oars Od act 366 
Cylinder, British Museum ....... 54 Siig aro We ladle’ ® MM a) Oslo ann aay meme. eae es OO 


Cylinder, Metropolitan’ Museum 1.) acum. fis poe ew ote etter teeta ode Senne a lente 367 


1262. 
2635 
1264. 
1265. 
1266. 
1207. 
1268. 


1269. 
1270. 
L27t. 
L272: 
U273. 
1274. 
127 5% 
1276. 


beg 
1278. 


1279. 


INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Cylinder, Bibliothéque Nationale, de la aes LIGy 
Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Misetgs « ian 
Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de Mithra, LIV, o 

Cylinder, British Museum ..... , 
Cylinder, J. Pierpont ‘pee Library 

Same as above . : 

SACIAS: ADOV Cotte mE te oe of akne os sie Sah, Seas, ee et A gies, ad eo 
Cylinder: british ivinseume ae sae oe. 

Bas-relief, Stele of Abu-habba.......... 

Dagerelict mole Cromer RIN WIUEANi em terre a, wert stcn coe eee te Pas emp DRE Ong oe ae ry 
Cylinder, Bibliotheque Nationale, 353... 

Bas-relief, Weissbach, Miscellen, frontispiece . 

SAHICIAg ADOVEN Daal Ommneram tus derrn Vike siso.gh eer aris Gant, Rises Fok Bona ERE OR” 
Sacre san OVEN ml Niemen tue ab sel, Alar tare ae a Fie Gia ea ae Gee Ge ae, Sere 
Cylinder, Nicolsky, La Déesse des Cylindres, p. 5. . 

Bas-relief, de Sarzec, Découvertes, pl. 25, fig. 5... 

Cylinder, British Museum .... 

Stele of Asarhaddon, Von Luschan, /Anrageinatern | in 1 Sendschirli, p. 18. 


Cue) ee Swe ses oe eile! ec <s) tei (82 ee), “se! (ee @) 6 


6) 10)18) 56) ie) (8; Jai) 8) e/fecielnie\ eo 16) (ei) 6 (6 (eka) wl ele) ‘wie) (6) 90-8) (6° (6| 79. 9) (6 6 


Se Garin.) Gh Gia e's el toite | leh-siid: a eed ip tia So MORSE $0 .eib a) Sle py feiret jw. e? cele, Yat w)ige)6).\e 


1280, Stele of Assurnazirpal. . 


1281, 
1282. 


1283. 
1284. 
1285. 


Stele of Asarhaddon, Maspero, icnlis of aie fempiess D. “gt. 

Bas-relief of Bavian, Von Luschan, Ausgrabungen, p. 21. RO TIS Re ae 

Bas-relief of Maltaya, Von Luschan, Ausgrabungen, p. Bey Se aie eae 
Rudurmede vlorganspDelegationzen. berses 1, py 168 sa... 2g ans ee ee ee 
Delesassa Doves Dik Valen cet. oO ee UN: . geen ROR tere Ce Oe See am eo 


1285a. Same as above, pl. XV. 


1286. 
1287, 
1288. 


1289. 
1290. 


Same as above, pl. XVI. , 

Kudurru, Rawlinson, W. At, We pl. 7. Be ORO May MOR Bes haces, © CL pee 
SalioeastaDOVerl Vie DMA fierce. a aeoors/i¢ 7) <3) ht min ota Naan ae aie ee ee 
Same as above, ITT, ph 45,1 aM age emer oxs antes Leears iweay a setesha oct karen scar eaten een 
SAL CPASTADOVE RULED GAG 602 ie neat iterate skcin \ cas tpt cny ape acne es SN oN Mie oh 


1291.) Kucurra, the: Michaux Stone, Lichtenstein, Tentamen, pl. V 22. ...+.....+- 

12914. Same as above, pl. VI . ee a lero pagekeiay’, satan stat c alaaeeme tens 

1202 Kudurru of Nabu-ukin-aplu, from a photograph . .. . edt eh eM p Ske ihc ore 
To cence undersea rene VivscUlmer ames sent nek 2 ni Cite «cnet eras Wet te eles a genomes eee eis 
1294. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library . ee yhie emer cey er cea Vena 
1295. Cylinder, Lajard, Culte de Mithra, LIV, Bight oe oC ene ale 
1296. Bowl of Palestrina, after © Latent Gannon’ Ponisen 

1297. Cylinder, J. Pierpont Morgan Library .. 

1298. Cone seal, J. Pierpont Morgan Library.... 

Hs OU Maid Gans ADOV GMa nte ee terete aie 4 2 tg eileen: 4, hie Teh a e astra xls dobbs. oun © Rompe once Se ae ee nt an 
1200 mDraronorsniarduk,, Lieuzey, Revue d’Assyriologice, VI, palOl ct.ce see ee ae 
HAO Fa CObe7scal mo ipilotiequesNAONAlC a. c.5). . 2 ts eee ec os Seth, Dudes Wie ote a aie gh dete eke saan «ks 
SO zee Vier ne MIMITOLG, tT Orie tie fa oh co) a eae, sn tin ousiniie peace oaueld eee OME Pepa Sl 
PROseCOnerecal sa VIUSCUIN OLR AVIDNION 9 fc veces hs Sole cn mye ea he 8 see nee eet Bera ea 
UZOs mC vinuerde Gicreg Catalogues 320) fO7 astern sie ca om oY Bice gue ote GMO aoe SEN enc EIN Sues 
r20Gacvinaer,.Llace, wionuments de Ninive, Ill pli7 6a. ne.nan aeceeen ee adobe ts 
POG Ame CO vilinder ge orc sOUlncsien sink. eis cis a Ais Clete Ca Meera npat Pale ote OI ie atm my tela atT SS X's 
Tor omlinpressioneo! fey mderson tablet, «VW sbi. Warde\ 0. og it ae cae gon eee eee) oe atone o 
Teoccetriinder sl eictponcalviorgans LADrary: 22135 Gisctan = octets ene ene ein terse 
TaO0m Cy Mader Dipiathequc  NAUGIAL Ci enalers cis ape conc eke tere eee aa Me Nee en nt Clee aah 2 
Otome VU COr OUT C suis) 23.0 2a ste isle) Gee eee shoe) encte aie ie geare) el Mere Mate «tee ie ere eli 
Has micy uncerse|« nierponteN organ. Library Sig sus ciety te) ic ee Wee ete hee © 
MOG mC vider et cuzey miipines Oricntales,)D.alQ4a)071. cheek ne Senha eee laps eta 
Ta Dome y unites eiuotnemien IN AllOniale sy 8.0 8 see. cy «aries telly ote carne ete seas katara oy ooo es 
ad dem co yiindersces® lered Cc atalOpne,.2 32 of ulna ian reus cine Mone ene ecls wien ee ft cuneee sre > 
Ti toe oy der, MIO d Cast wate esas one clas 7 slcie ar tee od nae eae te ae Mata atts bet eile 
U3 tec ylinger, cee lercy, Catalogue, 238) 26 eas cine acy eh aye ea eeepuic eye © Aas late ie melas © « 
Isla cvimndere Metropolitan, VISCUM Mie. ga tee «qs tes oie os ates AGEs tia) ia sab eel elec ip ele ol 
Taree cvinder, british IMUscUm? cesce swe es «0s 2 chee 8 ie sor notte elle ea migie} «+ =e ae mes mise oe 


a eed. » My) 

’ | re en 
AU \ are ae" %Y 7 
! ; a) _ 7 r, we 
‘<a re wee? 
ee ; Ga F a 7 aa 
8 oat OT gabled aa i 
. 7 ; erst i 


dew whegt pA Nira 


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f 


THE 
SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


BY 


WILLIAM HAYES WARD. 





CHAPTER I. 


INTRODUCTION: ORIGIN, USE, AND MATERIALS. 


The earliest method by which, so far as we know, proprietary rights were 
recorded in the East was by the use of a seal in the shape of a cylinder, or an ap- 
proximation to the cylinder, engraved with some special device peculiar to the 
owner. We find it in use in the very earliest period in Babylonia and also in Egypt, 
although in the latter country it was after the twelfth dynasty mostly superseded 


by the scarab. Its use, as an archaism, was not wholly discarded there as late as 
the twenty-second dynasty. 










$<} 


Wo 
JW y a 


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Als Naan tj 
co 
Z ( | | 


in, 
















UK| 
AZ 


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wy 
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~ we eC eS iD 
SUSE 





Ao 
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1a 





The shape of the seal suggests that the early writing was on clay. Of course, 
property rights existed before writing was invented, or even hieroglyphics. I have 
seen in a khan at Hillah, near Babylon, the door of a room in which a merchant 
left his goods, while absent on a journey, sealed with the owner’s seal impressed 
on pats of clay, so placed that the opening of the door would break the seal. Thus 
in the earliest times a seal might be used occasionally to protect property stored in 
rooms or jars. Occasionally such sealed pats of clay are found, but generally 
burned by some conflagration, and showing marks of the string which was attached 

1 


2 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


to them. In figs. 1, 1a, we have such an asphalt stopper to a jar, impressed with 
three cylinders, and in fig. 2 a pat of clay, with mark of the string on the back side, 
impressed with cone seals. But the main use of the seal was to authenticate written 
documents, letters, and bills of sale, or receipts for goods or money. For such 
documents we know that clay was used in Babylonia, no other material being so 
convenient and enduring. In fig. 3 we have such a sealed tablet, what is called a 
case tablet, of the period of Gudea, perhaps 2500 B.C. In Egypt clay was seldom 
in use, apparently, for writing, as the Egyptians at an early period learned to 
manufacture papyrus. The papyrus plant does not grow in Babylonia, and, in- 
deed, is not found in Egypt at present, except far up the Nile. Parchment might 
seem to have been a more natural substitute for clay in a country where sheep 
and goats were so plentiful, but we have no evidence that it was known. Indeed 
clay was much cheaper and suffered no deterioration in the wet winters, if properly 
burned. 





Very many of the early. Babylonian cylinders, though probably not the very 
earliest, were more or less concave on the surface, as in fig. 4, that is, they approached 
the shape of a shallow spool. The probable reason for this is that the tablet 
itself was usually convex on its surface, and the cylinder was made concave to fit 
it. The usual tablet was naturally molded in the shape of an ordinary cake of 
soap, with no square edges. At a later time tablets, usually larger ones, were nearly 
flat on the two faces, with square sides and ends. For these a perfectly cylindrical 
seal (fig. 5) would be more convenient, and these came into common use. Indeed, 
only such a perfect cylinder could be used on any material for writing other than 
clay. Still later the cylindrical seal had convex ends, as in fig. 6. In the later 
Persian period the cylinder itself became convex, or even somewhat barrel-shaped 
(fig. 7), and might, if small enough, be set in a ring (fig. 8). But in the case of the 
convex cylinder only a small device was usually engraved on the center surface; 
and, indeed, it may be that the seal had come to be little more than an amulet. 
By this time the cone seal, with a somewhat convex surface at the bottom (figs. 9, 
10), was in common use. It was not always a cone, but quite as frequently the 
section would be approximately a parallelogram with truncated angles. It has 
been suggested by Mr. Boscawen (‘‘The First of Empires,” p. 345) that the cone 


seal was a miniature matsebah, or sacrificial column, worn as an amulet, but I do 


INTRODUCTION: ORIGIN, USE, AND MATERIALS. 3 


not know the evidence for it. These cone seals were developed later into the Sas- 
sanian seals, hemispherical (fig. 11), or flattened (fig. 12) more and more until 
they became a complete finger-ring (figs. 13, 14). Comparatively few tablets, and 
those of the Persian period or later, are found sealed with cone seals (fig. 15), 
which suggests that by this time parchment was in common use, as it was in Greece; 
and for parchment the flat seal was necessary, and indeed it is in common use in 
the East for impressions on paper at the present day. 

Among the infrequent forms may be mentioned those, mainly of the Hittite 
period, in which one end of the cylinder was prolonged into a handle, through 
which a hole was pierced transversely, instead of the usual longitudinal hole. Such 
cylinders are shown in figs. 16, 16a. Also in the earlier times of Gudea we find 
cylinders with the upper and lower ends thickened with a ridge (fig. 17), as if to 
make a setting for the design, or perhaps to substitute the plate of copper used to 
fasten the handle. ‘These ridges show in the impressions on tablets. 


i 
GAu 























Dr. Hilprecht (“The Babylonian Expedition,” vol. 1, part 11, p. 36) offers a 
new suggestion as to the origin of the seal cylinder. He shows that the earliest 
form of the character mu, meaning name, is an arrow, and he conjectures that the 
idea of name came from the owner’s mark on the shaft of his arrow. Then he adds: 

It becomes now very evident that the Babylonian seal cylinder, with its peculiar shape and use, 


was developed out of this hollow shaft of an arrow, marked with symbols and figures, and is but a com- 
bination and elaboration in a more artistic form of an ancient primitive idea. 


The archaic form for mu is an arrow with two short parallel lines crossing two 
others in the middle of the shaft, thus <~—-_ , these cross lines representing, in 
Dr. Hilprecht’s view, the marks cut on the shaft. Of course the early thick and 
somewhat concave cylinders of the time of Sargon I. can not have had such an origin. 
Even those of the period that are not hollowed on the surface are too thick to have 
originated in the shaft of an arrow. 

But there is another type of very archaic cylinder seals, usually uninscribed 
and apparently older than Sargon I., which presents a size and shape which might 
have had its origin in the shaft of an arrow. Such a cylinder is seen in fig. 18. 
A number of these will be shown in chapters on “Archaic Cylinders.” They are 
often very long and slender, and the vertical hole suggests a hollow reed-arrow. 
They are usually in two registers, the two separated generally by two lines in 


4 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


the middle of the cylinder. Even when this archaic type becomes quite thick it 
is likely to retain the two registers and the separating lines. Judging from the 
peculiarities in the art, the drawing of the human faces, and the other designs, they 
appear to belong to a period which Heuzey and Hilprecht have made 4000 and more 
B.C.; that is, as early as the time of the most ancient kings of Nippur and Lagash. 

Herodotus tells us (Book 1, 195) that every Babylonian gentleman had his 
seal. “Every one carries a seal and a walking-stick.” It was worn suspended 
by a cord about the neck or on the wrist. It was not mounted on a swivel; but a 
single or double wire of copper, 
or occasionally gold or silver, 
and in later times iron, was put 
through the circular hole with 
which it was pierced longitudi- 
nally. This was clamped at the 
lower end, and bent or doubled 
into a loop at the upper end to 
receive the cord (figs. 19, 194). 
A number of cylinders with such mountings are in the museums. 
The iron has often rusted and split the cylinder, and the copper 
is usually oxidized in good part, but those mounted in gold are of 
course perfectly preserved. We find cases in which a flat plate 
of copper was applied to each end to protect the cylinder, and the 
copper wire was passed double through these plates and clamped at the lower end 
as usual, but against the copper plate, with the loop at the upper end. ‘These are 
not of the older period, when perhaps only the copper wire was used, without any 
cap at the end; or usually, it may be presumed, only a cord was need with no 
metal core or handle. 

Mr. J. Taylor found at Mugheir (Ur) graves with skeletons having cylinders 


on the wrists. He says: 





On the arm is sometimes found an inscribed cylinder of meteoric stone [hematite]. I have 
procured them with the remains of the string still existing, and I always observed that the ends went 
round the wrist. In some cases I have found a second engraved (rudely) but uninscribed cylinder 
of sandstone [?] between the feet. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xv, 1855, p. 273. 


Speaking of one burial vault, he says: 


There was, of course, the usual copper bowl (but broken); and a beautifully perfect inscribed 
cylinder of meteoric stone was fastened round the wrist. . . . At its feet was a cylinder, in common 
white sandstone (but much damaged), without an inscription. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 


VOLEXV, 615.55, aDse2 78. 


There were found at Nippur, by the University of Pennsylvania Expedition, 
cylinders with the remains of the string, as I am informed by Mr. D. Z. Noorian, 
one of its members. 

We have evidence in the case of certain cylinders of the Kassite period, as we 
gather from their impressions on tablets, as figured by Clay in his vol. xiv of 
“Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania,” p 15, that the ends 
were covered at times with a wide band of gold, very finely embossed with a geo- 
metrical design of chevrons and curves and dots (figs. 20, 21) as elaborate as some 


INTRODUCTION: ORIGIN, USE, AND MATERIALS. 5) 


of the interlacings on Hittite cylinders or in Mycenzan art. See also the gold 
mounting in fig. 1215; and we have almost the same design in the ornamentation 
about the base of a gold lion’s head in M. de Morgan’s “Délégation en Perse,” 
“Mémoires,” vol. vil, plate xxtv. 

This highly qeveloned perfection of ornamentation by lines and curves is, 
however, no iene of advanced civilization, as Ridgeway has shown in me 
“Early Greece,” 1, pp. 272-274, where he figures a Maori chieftain’s wooden 
scepter and ax, penta ornamented with whorl and spiral, almost exactly after 
the Mycenzan style. Indeed, the returning spirals are precisely the same as are to 
be seen on Syro-Hittite cylinders, as in fig. 827. 

I have said that it was probably the shape of the clay tablet that gave its shape 
to the seal. But it has been seductively suggested (C. W. King, “Handbook of 
Engraved Gems,” p. 4) that the original seal, in the rudest times, was the joint of 
a reed from the swamps. The lower joints are not far from the size and shape of 
the early concave seals. It would have been easy to make a seal out of one of 
these joints by cutting any desired coarse device on the surface. The reed would 
itself supply the hole for suspension. But this is pure conjecture unsubstantiated 
by any evidence; and, indeed, the very oldest cylinders, as has been said, do not 
seem to have been concave. 

The hole, or tube, for the suspension of the cylinder was, in the earliest times, 
quite large, in the case of the larger seals sometimes almost a centimeter in diameter. 
It was bored from both ends, and never would the two borings exactly meet in the 
middle. In the later seals, especially those in hard stone, the bore was much smaller. 
Very often, on the more common seals, those in a soft stone, we find the edges of 
the hole very much worn and enlarged, showing that it was carried not on a fixed 
and firm metal mounting, but on a string. Still, some of this wearing may be late, 
as cylinders when found are valued by the Arab women and are worn as charms. 

Previous to Gudea’s time and further back than the time of Sargon I. the 
cylinders were usually large and thick, from 30 to 60 mm. in length and the 
diameter considerably more than half. During Gudea’s time the fashion changed 
to the smaller hematite cylinders, about 20 mm. in length and the diameter half 
the length. Fig. 39 is a cylinder of Gudea of the old style, and others with his 


name are of the later and smaller hematite type. 


MATERIALS. 


According to W. M. Flinders Petrie (Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible, 
‘Precious Stones’’), the stones commonly known to the Egyptians for jewelry and 
engraving are the following, arranged by colors: 

Black, obsidian; blue, amethyst, lapis-lazuli; green, serpentine, feldspar (Ama- 
zon stone), jasper, turquoise; yellow, agate, jasper; brown, sard; red, red sard, 
feldspar, carnelian, jasper; white, quartz, milky quartz, chalcedony. To these he 
adds hematite, beryl, garnet, and corundum, which are found not engraved. After 
the Greek times the onyx (or nicolo) and the olivine (peridot, modern chrysolite) 
appear, and the beryl is rare before Graeco-Roman times. These are much the 
same that were known to the Greeks before Theophrastus, 300 B.C. Nearly all 
the stones used for engraving in Egypt are also found in the cylinders. The excep- 


6 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


tions would be (rarely if ever found) turquoise and red feldspar. Hematite is the 
commonest of all stones for cylinders, contrary to Petrie’s report of its non-use for 
engraving in Egypt; and beryl, garnet, and corundum are not known in cylinders. 
The onyx appears cut transversely in cylinders; cut along its layers it was employed 
for the eyes of idols. 

If the earliest seals were made of the lower joint of a reed or the slender reed 
shaft of an arrow, they have all perished. ‘The earliest material that we know 
seems to have been shell. ‘The center core was used of certain univalves of the 
genera Trito and Melo (Heuzey, “Cat. des Antiquités Chaldéennes,”’ p. 383), found 
in the Persian Gulf. Some of these are quite well preserved, and they nearly always 
show on the ends the curves of the helix of the shell (fig. 4) and usually on the sur- 
face some signs of the somewhat laminated, though quite solid, deposition of the 
nacreous substance. Usually the shell shows abundant evidence of decomposition 
and its substance is much deteriorated; and yet in some cases it is so compact that 
it might easily be mistaken for marble. It took fine lines, and from the earliest 
period both the core and the spreading outer portion of the shell were employed 
for decorative designs (Heuzey, “Cat. des Antiquités Chaldéennes,” pp. 383-405). 

Another very common material, indeed the most common of all, in the earlier 
Babylonian period, was serpentine, usually a rather hard black serpentine, occa- 
sionally with a brown tint, sometimes showing a green shade in the case of a thin 
fracture. Less common than the black was a somewhat softer light-green serpen- 
tine of a less compact structure, which does not take so fine a polish with wear, 
but which would seem to have been more valued. While serpentine is somewhat 
too soft for preservation against wear, it is not dissolved or injured by the elements, 
and such cylinders come to us in as good condition as they left their owners, unless, 
as is too often the case, they have been recut by modern merchants in antiquities. 
Many are thus rendered quite valueless. Most of the seals of this material are of 
the period before the time of Gudea; they are large, 3 cm. or more in length and 
half as thick, and are concave on the surface, although some are quite cylindrical. 
The serpentine of the early south Babylonian period is of a different quality from 
most of the north Assyrian serpentine, which is usually much softer and less com- 
pact and is very much worn in most cases. The color of these northern cylinders 
is of a dark greenish gray, not like the clearer green of the older cylinders of early 
Chaldea. Some extraordinarily large cylinders found by M. de Morgan in Susa 
are of a very light-green serpentine. ‘The sources of these varieties of serpentine 
still need investigation. 

Another material, less common, is white marble. ‘These cylinders may be of 
a very early period and of a large size, but they are seldom, if ever, concave on the 
face. It would therefore seem likely that they were not produced so much in Chal- 
dea as in some of the outlying provinces. One must avoid mistaking shell, when 
undecayed, for marble. 

The source of the marble is still uncertain. On the cylinder “Inscription A,”’ 
Gudea, we are told that the stone szr (marble) was brought from the Mountain of 
Marble (Thureau-Dangin, Zertsch. fir Ass., 1903, p. 196). This Thureau-Dangin 
identifies with str-gal, on Gudea, “Cylinder B,”’ said to have come from a place 
near the Mediterranean Sea, as we learn from an inscription on a small object in 
the Louvre, which says it is made of sir-gal (Heuzey, “Catalogue des Antiquités 


INTRODUCTION: ORIGIN, USE, AND MATERIALS. 7 


Chaldéennes, p. 265). It is of a dolomitic marble. Yet it also seems to have come 
from Elam (Thureau-Dangin, Rev. Ass., v, p. 74, note 9; also Heuzey, “La 
Masse d’Armes de Goudéa,”’ Rev. Arch., 1891). Calcareous and dolomitic marble 
would not be distinguished and are found in many places. 

Aragonite is another more crystalline stone resembling marble, being also 
calcareous. It is slightly translucent, like alabaster, with which it might be con- 
founded but for its superior hardness. The cylinders of this material are often 
like those in marble, large and quite cylindrical; but they are also often rather 
small in diameter and of a length three times their diameter or more, while the 
large cylinders have usually a diameter somewhat more than half their length. 
These cylinders are often, or usually, of a great antiquity, judging from the style 
of the engraving, and they affect the style of two, sometimes three, registers. The 
large majority of cylinders of this type are white, either marble or aragonite. They 
probably belong to a special district where was produced a type different from that 
prevalent in most of Babylonia. 

Lapts-lazult: This was a favorite and choice material in use from a very early 
and indeed the earliest period, and was probably obtained from the Persian mines. 
We have it in very large cylinders of the late Persian period and in those of the 
smallest dimensions, apparently too small for anything but ear-rings. It was often 
spangled with yellow mica, looking like flakes of gold, and often with white patches 
of calcite. The Babylonian name was uknu. 

Apparently the first hard stone to be used, of the hardness of quartz, was 
jasper. ‘The famous seal of Sargon the Elder is of brown jasper, if we may trust 
the designation of the material in de Clercq’s “Catalogue,” but the color is rare, 
if not unique. The difficulty of cutting it made it, in the early period, a rare 
material. 

A red jasper occasionally appears in the earlier seals. One such is that given 
by the distinguished orientalist de Saulcy to Ménant, the first careful student of 
this glyptic art, and it 1s now in my possession (fig. 167). 

A checkered red and white jasper, perhaps a kind of breccta, appears at an 
early period, and in the Kassite period a yellow and white breccia. 

Quartz crystal: We do not find this material in the very earliest art, but it 
appears in the time of Gudea and was quite common and valued in the Middle 
Babylonian period and occasionally down to the Persian period. It is a very poor 
stone for cutting with such tools as the Babylonians had, and not often does it 
take a clean engraving, owing to the brittle conchoidal fracture. It would seem as 
if the earlier artists must have used a gentle blow to engrave their harder stones. 
The surface is often well polished, but the engraving is rough. 

Chalcedony: ‘This material was seldom employed, if at all, in the early period 
for cylinders; but when we reach the later Babylonian empire it was the most 
common and cheapest of all materials. Although of the hardness of quartz crystal, 
its structure is not crystalline but colloidal, and it has a toughness that responds 
admirably to the tool. Accordingly the finest work can be done on it, and equally 
the rudest with a coarse wheel. 

Sapphirine, a variety of chalcedony, is a clear light-blue stone, very attrac- 
tive and of various depths of color. In the Persian times it was used for much fine 
work, either in cylinders or in cone seals, as also later for scaraboids. 


8 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Red carnelian is another variety of chalcedony, used in much the same way as 
sapphirine for both cylinders and cone seals, but which seems to have come into 
use at a somewhat earlier period during the Middle Empire. 

A gate is yet another variety of chalcedony of various shades of banded color, 
often used in later times. The carnelian and sapphirine may have been the core of 
an agate pebble. 

Rose quartz: Some cylinders are found of this material, but rather late and 
probably from the north. 

Syentte: Some very archaic cylinders are in this material. 

‘fade: A very few cylinders are in jade. They are all late and seem to relate 
themselves to Asia Minor; but the quarry is unknown, as in the case of most of 
the other choice stones. Jade was somewhat frequently used by the prehistoric 
inhabitants of Asia Minor as a material for implements of the Smooth Stone Age.* 

Glass: Very rarely glass cylinders appear of a very late period. They are of 
the white glass, not of the deep green, like emerald, of which one cone seal is known, 
belonging to the Metropolitan Museum. This museum has two glass cylinders. 

T erra-cotta: The Egyptian cylinders are of terra-cotta, mostly glazed green, 
but a number of them from Asia Minor are in stone, generally serpentine. 

Composition: The Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, has one cylinder made of a 
composition said to be of “sulphur and resin.”” (See Chabouillet’s “Catalogue.’’) 
This cylinder is No. 723. It is a reddish-gray material, with what look like small 
bubble-holes. The engraving appears to be of the period of Gudea. I know of no 
other cylinder that is likely to be of a composition, although a plaque of this period, 
if genuine, is of a composition of bitumen and clay or sand (see Heuzey, “Cata- 
logue des Antiquités Chaldéennes,” p. 125). This also is unique as to material 
for an object of art, and the design is very peculiar. I presume the cylinder is a 
late cast, like those distributed by Tassie. 

Slaty stone: A number of cylinders of a middle and late period are of such a 
stone. / 

Flint: A very few seem to be of this stone. 

Obsidian: In the Kassite period obsidian began to be used, but it was never 
common. ‘lwo fine cylinders of this material are in the Bibliothéque Nationale, 
and there are two or three in the Metropolitan Museum. Obsidian prehistoric 
knives and saws are found in Asia Minor, and it is likely that the material for these 
cylinders came from that region. 

Among peculiar and unusual stones may be mentioned a siliceous petrified 
coralline stone, with red circles of the coral, also another with abundant branching 
dark patches which look like seaweed (“Louvre, M. N. B., 1907’’). 

Red marble: A soft red marble is found employed, as well as the white marble, 
for the thick cylinders. 

Amazon stone: ‘This material came into use in the Kassite period and was 
evidently much valued for its clear green color. It is a little softer than the quartz- 
ites, being a feldspar, and its lamellar crystalline structure makes it brittle. It has 
been described in catalogues as beryl or emerald, but I have seen only a single 
cylinder that seemed to be of a bluish beryl. The Amazon stone, as also the green 





ry 


*Indentified as “jadeite” by M. Gennard, “un de nos minéralogistes les plus éminents,” and used for “ haches” 
(Chantre, “ Mission en Cappadoce,” pp. 79, 131). A number of such celts have come into my possession from the same region. 


INTRODUCTION: ORIGIN, USE, AND MATERIALS. 9 


variety of sard known as prase, and even jade, appears in catalogues as “ mother of 
emerald” or “root of emerald,” a more proper designation of the coarser beryls. 
Pliny describes two Persian stones which may be the Amazon stone, one the tanos, 
“a disagreeable green, foisted among the smaragdi,” and the other the eumithres, 
“or gem of Belus, of the color of a leek-leaf, and a favorite in their superstitions.” 
(King, ‘Gems or Semi-precious Stones,”’ p. 128.) 


TOOLS FOR CUTTING. 


The seals in soft material of an early age, such as shell, serpentine, and marble, 
could easily have been cut with flint, which was in familiar use in chips, flakes, 
knives, and saws. But when they came to engrave quartzite material as hard as 
flint, such as agate, syenite, or quartz crystal, it would be necessary 
to employ a harder tool. While it would be possible to engrave 
quartz with quartz, as we polish diamond with diamond, this would 
be a very tedious process. The harder substance would be found 
probably in corundum or emery, whether in chipped points or in 
powder. The crude corundum, not in the nature of gems, is a 
rather frequent stone and was in very early use in Egypt and later 
in Greece. We may presume that all of the early fine work in hard stone was 
done with this substance, as diamond was probably unknown. ‘The powder could 
be used for piercing the holes, and any sand would do for the holes in the softer 
materials, such as shell, serpentine, or even the feldspar of Amazon stone. 

All the early seals were thus cut with the free hand. It is not unlikely that the 
holes piercing the cylinders were perforated by a copper tool, used with emery, 








and revolved by the aid of the string of a bow, or simply rolled with the hand. 
In Egypt, we have a picture of the process (fig. 22), Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., xxvut, 
p. 280, and the inscription says, ‘“ Drilling a seal by the seal-maker” (Newberry). 
But the use of revolving metal tools for engraving the surface was earlier in Egypt 
and was introduced from Egypt into Assyria by way of Syria. It is not till the time 
of the Egyptian invasion of the eighteenth dynasty that we begin to find tools 
revolved with the bowstring thus used for engraving 
with emery powder. We can date this use in Babylonia 
first by the seals of the Kassite style. But in the Syro- 
Hittite region, somewhat later, a multitude of seals in 
hematite and chalcedony are roughly cut in this way. 

We can recognize the various types of these engraving tools. ‘The first was 
a burr, large or small, to make round holes. The second was a disk, the edge 
of which was applied to the stone; this tool being very thin for mere lines and 
quite thick for the bodies of men or animals. The third was the tube, which 





10 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


was used to cut circles, as in the coarse rope pattern, or held at an angle to make 
a crescent, whether of the moon or of a dog’s tail. The work with these tools 
is sometimes extremely coarse, so that it is almost impossible to recognize the 
design, and sometimes so fine that it seems like free-hand work. Specimens of 
the work of these tools may be seen in figs. 23, 24, 25. In figs. 24, 25 we see 
the work of all three tools. The round dots are made with the burr, or drill; 
the straight lines, deeper and wider in the middle, are made with the disk; and 
the circles, and the crescents deepest and thickest in the middle, are made with the 
tube. It may be that at the latest period the tools were revolved by attachment 
to a wheel, like the potter’s wheel, which was worked by the foot. Such a use of 
a tool rapidly revolved by the wheel may be what Pliny means by the “terebrarum 
ferva,” which he says in his “Natural History,” Lxxvi, LXXXviI, was of chief 
advantage in gem-cutting.* And yet it is not clear that anything like the potter’s 
wheel was used to revolve the tools, at least in the period of the cylinders. Even 
at the present time in the East the engraver’s work of the finest kind, such as the 
most delicate Arabic lettering, is done with the simple bowstring, and the most 
minute disks are attached to the end of the tool. Some of the finest Assyrian 
cylinders seem to show the use of such minute disks, for the straight lines do not 
protrude at all beyond their border, nor are they thickest in the middle. Indeed, 
at times the parallel straight lines in the wings grow broader toward the lower end 
and could not have been made by a large thick disk. Very minute dots and points 
were made with a burr, and very short lines with the edge of a very small disk and 
not with the free hand. 

In earlier times a copper tool would be used, with a flake of corundum fast- 
ened in it, and later an iron tool, which in still-later classical times, but not during 
the Assyrian period, would have attached to it a flake of diamond instead of corun- 
dum. This sort of tool is what the prophet Jeremiah has in mind when he says 
(17:1): “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron with a point of emery;f 
it is graven upon the table of their heart.”” “The Greeks, and equally the Egyptians 
and the Assyrians, had no knowledge of the diamond until the Indian conquests 
of Alexander. We learn from Petrie (“Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh,”’ p. 173) 
that the Egyptians did all their fine stone-cutting with emery, the coarser opaque 
form of corundum, of which the sapphire and the ruby are the finer forms. Emery 
sand was found in abundance in Ethiopia. The Greeks obtained corundum from 
Naxos and Cyprus; but Theophrastus says that the best emery was brought from 
Armenia, which was accessible to the Babylonians, and indeed they might very 
likely have found sources of corundum in Elam or Arabia. 











* For a discussion of the tools used in gem engraving by the ancients, see C. W. King, “ Precious Stones and Metals,” 
p- 50; “ Gems and Semi-precious Stones,” p. 192; also Soldi, “ Les Cylindres Babyloniens,” p. 15. 
} The Hebrew word shamir, emery, is mistranslated “diamond ” in both the Authorized and Revised Versions. 


CHAPTER II. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


It was soon after the middle of the eighteenth century that interest began to 
be taken in the seal cylinders brought by travelers from the East. The Greek 
and Roman gems had long been collected and had been the object of careful 
study,* but very few Babylonian or Assyrian intaglios had fallen in the way of 
collectors, and they had excited little more than a mild curiosity. Whatever was 
not Greek, Roman, or evidently Egyptian was classed under the general designa- 
tion of Etruscan.t 

The first publication of any of the Oriental seal cylinders known to me was by 
Comte Caylus in his “Recueil d’Antiquités Egyptiennes, Etrusques, Grecques et 
Romaines.”’ Of this handsome collection, mainly of classical antiquities, with 
some Egyptian and Oriental interspersed, there were issued seven volumes, some 
of which passed into a second edition within a few years. The first five volumes 
contain figures of seven cylinders, { and other Assyrian cone seals and Sassanian 
seals. 

The objects figured by Count Caylus were, or had been, in his own collection 
(1, Introduction, p. 1) and many of them passed into the Cabinet du Roi (p. xii). 
Count Caylus seems to speak (1, p. 56) of a cylinder figured by Montfaucon “ parmi 
plusieurs morceaux Egyptiens,” but I have not found it. 

One cylinder had also been published by Bianchini, in his “Storia Universale,” 
Dag 7A Som uassicnlap.102) 

In 1791 there was published in London ‘Tassie and Raspe’s “A Descriptive 
Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems, etc.,”’ 
of which Tassie offered casts for sale in paste, enamel, and sulphur. This work 
was in two quarto volumes, printed in double columns, one English and one French; 
and at the end of the second volume were a large number of plates, of which plates 
IX, IXa, and X gave nine cylinders from the British Museum and Mr. Townley’s 
collection. ‘They were described as Persepolitan, although only one of the nine is 
of Persian origin; but the cuneiform characters on some of them were then known 
only from the monuments of Persepolis. The text was written by M. Raspe, and 
he was inclined to connect the form of writing with the Chinese (vol. 1, p. 64), 
herein anticipating M. Delacouperie. The Egyptian hieroglyphics, however, he 
regarded as of a different order, having no Chinese afhnities. 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century these objects began to attract the 
attention of scholars as well as of collectors. But at first it was the writing rather 
than the art that invited curious study. In 1801 Dr. Joseph Hager published at 





* Mariette, Traité des Pierres Gravées, Paris, 1750. 2 vols. folio. 

+ Ménant, “Les Pierres Gravées,” 1, p. 11, refers on this point to Pietri Sancti Bartoli, “Sepulchri Antichi” ; Gori, 
“Museum Etrusc.,” p. 431, Florence, 1737; Mariette, “ Traité des Pierres Gravées,” p. 7. 

{ T. 1, pl. xvim, 1, 2 (nouvelle édition, 1761); t. 1, pl. 1x, 2 (1756); t. mm, pl. xu, 1, 2 (1759); t. rv, pl. xxu, 2 (1761); 
t. v, pl. x11, 4. Of these the first two are said to have been found in Egypt; but Count Caylus regarded all these cylinders 
as specimens rather of Persian art, except that from t. 1v, which contains an Egyptian cartouche and inscription. 


11 


12 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


London “A Dissertation on the Newly Discovered Babylonian Inscriptions,” in 
which (p. 40) he figures three cylinders, two of which were copied from Tassie and 
Raspe, and a third was sent him by Dr. Miinter from Copenhagen. This last is an 
interesting one, as it shows the goat-fish, or capricorn, with vase and streams. Dr. 
Hager was taken up wholly with the inscriptions, especially on those brought lately 
to England from Babylon by order of the East India Company. 

In 1802 Dr. Friedrich Miinter published in Copenhagen his “Versuch tber 
die Keilformigen Inschriften,” in which he gave copies of four cylinders, two of 
them after Tassie and Raspe, and one of them the same cylinder, with the goat- 
fish, which Dr. Hager had published the previous year. ‘[wenty-five years later 
the same author returned to the subject and published his “Religion der Baby- 
lonier,’’ Copenhagen, 1827, in which he gave figures of fifteen cylinders, besides 
cone seals, and one of the so-called “boundary-stones,”’ or kudurrus. ‘These cylin- 
ders are taken from Caylus’s “Recueil,” Tassie and Raspe’s “Catalogue,” * and 
also the “Fundgruben des Orients,” Rich’s “Second Memoir,”’ Murr’s “ Journal 
fiir Kunst,” and Dorow’s “Morgenlandische Alterthtimer,”’ 1, which had mean- 
while appeared. Minter was a careful and intelligent student of these objects, and 
secured plaster casts of the 59 seals, mostly cylinders, bought from the Rich collec- 
tion by the British Museum, and of others given by Rich to the Vienna Museum. 
Casts of the collection of cylinders made by Captain Lockett, of London, when with 
Mr. Rich in Baghdad, seem to have been in Miinter’s hands (p. 95). 

In 1803 was published at Helmstadt D. A. A. H. Lichtenstein’s “’Tentamen 
Palezographiz Assyrio-Persice,”’ which was a futile attempt, long pursued, to 
decipher the cuneiform inscriptions. On plate viii he gives the design of an interest- 
ing cylinder of late Assyrian period, often copied from him.* 

In the years 1809-18 appeared in two languages at Vienna six successive 
folio volumes of Von Hammer’s “Fundgruben des Orients,” also called “Mines 
de l’Orient.’”’? Of this series two volumes are important for the first contributions 
of C. J. Rich and the publication of his cylinders. His first “Memoir on the Ruins 
of Babylon” was published in vol. m1, pp. 129-162 (1813), and was followed in 
the next Heft by a further article entitled “Continuation of the Memoir on the 
Antiquities of Babylon.” ‘This is accompanied by a plate with 8 cylinders, well 
chosen for their importance, for they include the seated Ishtar (fig. 407), that of a 
lion with her paw on a bull’s shoulder, attacked by a man with a spear (fig. 1068), 
and that with the streams about a kneeling figure under a solar disk (fig. 655). 

In vol. 1v, p. 86, under the title “ Babylonische Talismane,” is a short notice 
of the cylinders figured on two plates from the Rich collection. These were given 
partly to Erzherzog Johann for the Johanneum in Graz,f and partly to Graf 
Rzewusky and Herr von Hammer. One of these plates (p. 86) contains 14 cylin- 
ders, and the other, following an article by von Hammer, “Ueber die Talismane 
der Muslimen,” contains 15 more of the Rich cylinders. 

In 1818 Claudius James Rich, who had been for some years British Resident 
at Baghdad and had devoted himself to topographical and archeological investiga- 
tion, published in London his “Second Memoir on Babylon,” the substance of 
which had appeared just before in “Fundgruben des Orients.” In it he gives 





* For its history see “ Tentamen,” p. 145. 
{ See Fischer and Wiedermann’s Catalogue of the Johanneum “ Talismane.” 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 13 


(plate m1) figures of five cylinders brought by him from Babylonia. Among them 
is one of prime importance, that which represents the seated Ishtar with weapons 
rising from her shoulders (see fig. 407). These are all which he published from the 
fine collections which he and his companions, Dr. Hine and Captain Abraham 
Lockett, brought from the East, most of which found their way into the British 
Museum and were the foundation of its great collection. Unfortunately, however, 
the gem of them all, the cylinder with the seated Ishtar, does not appear to be in 
the British Museum, and I do not know where it is. 

The next year, 1819, appeared in London the first of two large quarto volumes 
of Sir William Ouseley’s “Travels in Various Countries in the East.” In vol. 1, 
PP- 423-433, plate xx1, he describes and figures two cylinders, one of them from 
Captain Lockett’s collection, of interest as representing a god grasping on each 
side a man-fish (fig. 657). In vol. u, p. 536, plate xxxvu, is described and figured 
another Assyrian seal received from Captain Lockett in exchange for the one with 
the man-fishes previously presented to him. It represents a composite winged 
figure with a bird head holding a basket, and a deity with a spouting vase held 
at his breast. This is figured also on the title-page of Landseer’s “Sabean 
Researches.” * 

Ouseley corrects Tassie and Raspe’s idea that these cylinders were Perse- 
politan, seeing they were found in Babylon. He supposes that the figures on the 
cylinders are such as are described by Berosus as figured on the walls of the temple 


of Belus. But here he probably followed Rich. 

In 1820 Dr. Dorow published, at Wiesbaden, Heft 1 of his “ Morgenlandische 
Alterthimer,” under a long title, “Die Assyrische Keilschrift erlautert durch 
zwei noch nicht bekannt gewordene Jaspis-Cylinder aus Nineveh und Babylon,” 
etc. In it he gives engravings of three cylinders, one of them after Lichtenstein’s 
“Tentamen” and the two others not before published. They are both among the 
most important cylinders known, one of them being the royal cylinder with the 
name of an Armenian king and the figure of a winged god holding two ostriches 
(fig. 42). This belonged to Dr. Dorow and is now in the Museum of The Hague. 
It was brought from Constantinople by Graf Joseph von Schwachheim, who was for 
eight years Austrian Minister at the Porte, and was given by his heir, through the 
intervention of Prof. G. C. Braun, Mainz, to Dr. Dorow, in 1819. See Dorow’s 
“Die Assyrische Keilschrift,” p. 13 (15). “The other is the even more important 
cylinder belonging then to Dr. John Hine, of Baghdad, a copy of which had been 
sent to Dr. Dorow by Rich, now, after long disappearance, one of the treasures of 
the British Museum, giving the name of King Ur-Engur, of the first dynasty of 
Ur (fig. 30).f Attached to Dr. Dorow’s paper are several letters on the subject 
from his scholarly friends, the longest and most important of which is from the 
distinguished scholar, Prof. G. F. Grotefend, who was the first to discover a clue 





* Sir William Ouseley was not without some critical skill. He says: 

“T strongly suspect that in drawings, or engravings made from them, the same face has, through mistake, been some- 
times furnished with a beard ; this suspicion may perhaps fall even on a cylinder delineated by the ingenious Raspe (Tassie’s 
“Gems, plate 1x, 2, No. 15099).” Vol. 1, p. 424, note. 

In this case Ouseley is right. It is a figure of the goddess Aa, which is furnished with a short beard; beards are almost 
always long. But later and more accomplished scholars have made the same mistake. 

The authenticity of this cylinder was much doubted, but a letter from Mr. C. D. Cobham, in the London Atheneum of 
August 24, 1889, vouches, against Ménant, that it is the same cylinder which Ker Porter saw at Baghdad in 1818, and which 
remained in Dr. Hine’s possession until his death, in 1859, at the age of 82. A few days after Dr. Hine’s death it was given by 
his executor to Mr. Cobham, who presented it in 1880 to the British Museum. 


14 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


to the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions. Here we find (p. 25) recorded 
the conclusion previously reached by Caylus (Recueil, 11, p. 27), that the cylinders 
were used not as amulets only, as still used by the Arab women, who wear them 
believing that they have the power to retain the affection of their husbands,* but 
were real seals. This conclusion he bases on the evidence of a cuneiform tablet 
belonging to Mr. Bellino, on which were not only cuneiform characters, but also 
the impression of a cylinder.| This conclusion he strengthens by the fact, observed 
by him and confirmed by the wider observation of Rich, that the writing on the 
cylinders is generally reversed. It is not strange that Grotefend had to depend 
mainly on Persian and Avestan sources for his interpretations of the designs figured 
on the cylinders. 

In 1822 appeared Sir Robert Ker Porter’s two quarto volumes of “‘Travels 
in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, etc.” This work was richly 
illustrated, and two of its plates, Lxx1x and Lxxx, gave four cylinders, of which 
one was Dr. Hine’s fine cylinder of King Ur-Engur, previously published by Dr. 
Dorow from the copy he had received from Rich. Ker Porter had seen it in 
Baghdad. 

In 1817 John Landseer read before the Society of Antiquaries a paper published 

“Archzologia,” vol. xvii, entitled “Observations on Engraved Gems,”’ etc. 
At the suggestion of Sir W. Ouseley and others, this was developed into a quarto 
volume, of which it proved the first chapter, entitled “Sabean Researches, London, 
1823,” consisting of letters written to various persons on the subject of the Oriental 
cylinders, especially those consigned to his care by Captain Lockett, who was 
associated with Rich when he was British Resident in Baghdad.t Ouseley’s antici- 
pation of the permanent value of Mr. Landseer’s studies was hardly justified by 
the handsome volume published four years later. It was full of unsupported 
conjectures of the character suggested by the title, and found in the worship of 
heavenly bodies the explanation of all the designs on the seven cylinders figured 
by him, which had belonged to Captain Lockett and Sir W. E. Rouse Boughton, 
and which are drawn, in a chain, for the title-vignette of the first chapter. They 
include the two figured by Ouseley. Four of these are fully engraved, besides another 
of the Rich cylinders; but no one of them is of special value. Landseer makes the 
absurd suggestion, p. 8, that the concave face of many cylinders was so made ‘ 
adapt their shapes to the convexities of the human form,” as they were worn as 
amulets. He did, however, recognize their use also as seals. 

Grotefend continued to give occasional consideration to the cylinders subse- 
quently to his paper, above mentioned, which he contributed to Dr. Dorow’s “ Die 
Assyrische Keilschrift erlautert.” In 1852 in his “Erlauterung der Keilinschriften 
Babylonischen” he includes a section, pp. 24-28, “Erlauterung einiger Morgen- 
landischer Cylindern,” accompanied by a plate containing four cylinders previ- 
ously unpublished, belonging to Hofbuchhandler Hahn. ‘The cylinders are not 


of special interest. 








* Dorow, p. 24, note, after Rich. 
Doce impressed cylinder is made the title-vignette to Herder’s collected works on Philosophy and History, Dorow, p. 25. 
On the eve of his departure from England, Captain Lockett consigned these Babylonian treasures to the care of Mr. 
Landseer, who has undertaken to conduct through the press his absent friend’s long expected work on the ‘ae ce city of 
Nimrod or Belus, of Ninus and Semiramis; and of his most interesting researches on the plain of Shinar... I shall here 
express my wish that Mr. Landseer may soon extend his own short Memoir, now,part of a miscellaneous work, to a volume which, 
coming from his pen, can not be too long.” Ouseley’s “ Travels,” 1, p. 425,?note. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 15 


In the Académie des Inscriptions, N. S., t. xv1, part 2, 1846, M. Raoul-Rochette 
had a paper, “De la Croix ansée,” accompanied by a plate with eight cylinders. 
In t. xv, part 2, 1848, he published another paper “Sur |’Hercule Assyrien et 
Phénicien considéré dans ses rapports avec |’Hercule Grecque,” which is illustrated 
with plates, three of which contain 19 cylinders. 

The first important large collection of engravings of cylinders was made by 
A. Cullimore, London, 1843 (n. d., 1848 ?), and published in four successive parts. 
It contained no text whatever, except three pages of autographed list of the cylinders, 
telling their ownership. The cylinders number 174, and are unclassified and rather 
poorly drawn; 114 are credited to the British Museum, 19 to the Imperial Collec- 
tion at Vienna, and all the rest to private persons in Great Britain. 

The importance of this work was soon completely overshadowed by that of 
a much more ambitious work by M. Felix Lajard, published in 1847 by the Imperial 
Press at Paris. This was “Introduction 4 |’Etude du Culte Publique et les Mystéres 
en Orient et en Occident.’’ It is a large folio volume of plates and was followed 
by a stout posthumous octavo volume of text published by the Imperial Press in 
1867. ‘The plates in the first volume number 110, of which 40 contain drawings 
of 276 cylinders, besides numerous engraved cone seals and other objects that 
would illustrate the author’s theory that all these designs had to do with the wor- 
ship of Mithra. The drawings are excellently made in fine outline, enlarged, and 
the value of this collection from every available source can not be overestimated. 
It remained, until the publication of M. de Clercq’s collection, the chief source of 
information on the subject of the cylinders. 

The conclusions of M. Lajard as to the meanings to be attached to the monu- 
ments so carefully collected by him were nothing less than fantastic. He drew 
from these monuments the theory that there were represented the various stages, 
or grades, in the initiation into the Mithraic mysteries. Of these there were, he 
held, twelve grades, that of the Soldier, the Bull, the Lion, the Vulture, the Ostrich, 
the Raven, the Griffin, the Persians, the Sun, the Eagle-Father, the Sparrow- 
Father, and the Father of Fathers. With these were connected various priests, 
priestesses, hierodules, and initiatory ceremonies, which are figured on the seals. 
Wherever a worshiper is led to a god, it is a scene of initiation. ‘This theory had 
considerable vogue, and its influence is seen in the writings even of Meénant and 
other French scholars.* 

The two names of M. Joachim Ménant, Member of the Institut, and M. 
Louis de Clercq, deputy, will always be closely associated on account of the more 
scientific development of the study of the art of the nearer Orient, which we owe 
to the careful and modest scholarship of Ménant and the generous liberality of 
de Clercq, who made, at just the time when it could best be done, a remarkable 
collection of Oriental cylinders and other objects, and put the task of their publi- 
cation into the hands of his friend Ménant. They published under the final date of 
1888, at Paris, a series of forty folio plates containing 461 cylinders belonging to 
de Clercq’s collection, with a full description. Among these are several royal 
cylinders, including that of the Elder Sargon (fig. 26), which is the gem of all col- 





* M. Lajard believed there was an intimate relation between the mysteries of Mithra and those of Mylitta, or Venus; and 
he published two quarto volumes of “ Recherches sur le Culte, les Symboles, les Attributs, et les Monuments figurés de Vénus en 
Orient et en Occident,” of which the volume of text appeared in 1837, while that of plates bears date of 1849. It contains 
eleven cylinders, also to be found in the plates of the “ Culte de Mithra.” 


16 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


lections and of all early Babylonian engraving, both for its art and its antiquity. 
The heliogravures by Dujardin are as nearly perfect as possible from the impres- 
sions of the cylinders, taken on molding wax, hardly equal to the plaster casts 
made by Mr. Ready at the British Museum. The publication of this work gave 
most important new material to scholars, and still remains, with Lajard’s “Culte 
de Mithra,” their chief source of material for the investigation of the engraved 
art of the early East. 

While Ménant was carrying on his studies of the material so freely supplied 
by de Clercq, he did not fail to examine all the other collections of cylinders which 
could be reached. The result of this study he put in his most valuable “Les Pierres 
Gravées de la Haute-Asie; Recherches sur la Glyptique Orientale,” the two 
volumes of which appeared in Paris, 1883-86. ‘This is thus far the only important 
work, indeed the only one of any sort, devoted specifically to the explication of the 
engraved stones of Babylonia and the allied regions. It is illustrated abundantly 
with plates in heliogravure, by Dujardin, and with a multitude of wood engravings 
inserted in the text. Ménant classified intelligently the cylinders and cone seals, 
recognizing their national origin, their subjects and styles of art. “The soundness 
of his judgment was aided by his studies of the literature and writing of the cunei- 
form texts, on which he published important works. But while he edited the first 
large list of cuneiform characters and the first collection of translated historical 
texts, his best work was done in the study of these engraved stones of High Asia, 
where he was the teacher of all subsequent scholars. In the present work there 
will be constant occasion to refer to the “Pierres Gravées”’ of this scholar, as well 
as to his “Catalogue” of the de Clercq collection, and his contributions to the 
scientific periodicals, which will be mentioned in their place.* 

It is not necessary here to cite the multitude of minor papers on the cylinders 
which have appeared during the last forty years. ‘Those that are of special value 
will be cited later. But mention must be made of a few catalogues of minor public 
or private collections which are accompanied by plates. Such are, particularly, 
Ménant’s “Catalogue des Cylindres Orientaux du Cabinet Royal des Meédailles 
de La Haye,” 1878, which embraces 35 cylinders belonging to the Museum of The 
Hague, besides other Assyrian and Sassanian seals. Among them are several 
important ones, especially the royal Armenian cylinder (fig. 42). 

Another is the collection of Cypriote cylinders brought from Cyprus by Gen. 
L. P. di Cesnola, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, of which 32 are 
figured in General di Cesnola’s “Cyprus: its Ancient Cities, ‘Tombs and Temples,” 
1878; and in the same author’s folio “Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection 
of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York” (vol. 111, 
plates CXIX to CXXI, 1903). 

A. collection of “Babylonian and Assyrian Cylinder-Seals in the possession of 
Sir Henry Peek, Bart.,” was described by Dr. T. G. Pinches in 1890. This col- 
lection contains 22 cylinders. 

Under the title “Ueber Babylonische Talismane (Cylinder und andere For- 


men) aus den historischen Museum im Steierisch-landschaftlichen Joanneum zu 








* Ménant also found time, notwithstanding his duties as conseiller 4 la Cour d’Appel, to pursue investigations in Persian 
and Avestan antiquities, which have been continued by his daughter, Mlle. Delphine Ménant, in a work crowned by the 
French Institute. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 17 


Graz,” Dr. Heinrich Fischer and Dr. Alfred Wiedermann published in Stuttgart, 
1881, a thin quarto with 14 cylinders and some other seals. 

Scattered through the numerous plates in Max Ohnefalsch-Richter’s quarto, 
‘‘Kypros, the Bible and Homer,” London, 1893, will be found drawings of about 175 
cylinders, gathered mostly from published sources, but a few not previously figured. 

In “Salaminia,” by L. P. di Cesnola, London, 1884, are 63 figures of Cypriote 
cylinders collected by him during his excavations in that island. 

In Maxwell Somerville’s “Engraved Gems,’’ Philadelphia, 1889, are included 
43 cylinders belonging to the author’s private collection. 

In M. Ernest de Sarzec’s “ Découvertes en Chaldée,” edited by M. L. Heuzey, 
are two plates containing photogravures of 19 cylinders collected by the French 
explorer. Three of these are of high value; one being that of the physician Ur- 
lugal-edina (fig. 772); another the goddess under the bent tree, apparently attacked 
by an enemy (fig. 399); and yet another, one of the rare series of cylinders contain- 
ing the man borne aloft by an eagle (fig. 391). 

M. Marcel Dieulafoy’s “L’Acropole de Suse,” Paris, 1890, contains wood- 
cuts of 19 cylinders collected by the author mostly in Baghdad.* Some of them 
are choice, and these, as well as those collected by de Sarzec, are now in the Louvre. 

M. de Morgan, in charge of the later French excavations in Susa, which have 
been so fruitful of discoveries, and of the Code of Hammurabi, has been fortunate 
in finding a new series of Elamite cylinders. These are published in four pho- 
togravure plates and in wood-engravings, in vols. vil and vill, 1905, of the 
“Mémoires” of the “ Délégation en Perse,’ under the special title of ‘“ Recherches 
Archéologiques.”’ ‘Twenty-three cylinders are included in the plates, and thirty-six 
others, more definitely Elamite and supposed to be very archaic, are engraved in 
the text. These are now in the Louvre. 

In C. W. King’s “Antique Gems and Rings,” London, 1872, will be found 
engravings of 19 cylinders. In the same author’s “Handbook of Engraved Gems,” 
London, 1885, are engravings of 22 cylinders, most of them repeated from the 
earlier volume. 

The collection belonging to M. O. Pauvert de la Chapelle was given by him 
to the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothéque Nationale at Paris, where it was 
added to the magnificent collection previously given by the Duc de Luynes. ‘This 
collection is described and figured in a catalogue entitled “Intailles et Camées 
donnés au Département des Médailles et Antiques de la Bibliothéque Nationale,” 
Paris, 1899, the editor being M. Ernest Babelon, Conservateur of that department. 
It contains photogravures of 12 cylinders. ; 

While this work is passing through the press there has appeared, 1909, under 
the title “Cylinders and other Oriental Seals,” a quarto volume, edited by myself, 
privately printed, containing heliotype figures, with descriptive text, of 280 cylinders 
of a collection in the library of J. Pierpont Morgan. This collection is particularly 
rich in Syro-Hittite cylinders and contains some other notable varieties included 
in this volume. 

Since attention has been directed to these objects in later years there have 
appeared a multitude of papers by various scholars discussing such cylinders or 
some of their figures or emblems. These will be mentioned in their place; but it 





*T recognize some of them as those that I saw in Baghdad in 1885, in the possession of Mr. Blockie, the English banker. 


2 


18 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


is important to speak here of the investigations of two scholars who have much 
advanced these studies. One of these is M. Fr. Lenormant, many of whose notes 
of importance are found in his “Essai de Commentaire des Fragments Cosmo- 
goniques de Bérose,”’ 1871. He made a careful study of the cylinders collected 
by Lajard and attempted to identify the deities there figured. ‘The other is M. 
Léon Heuzey, the learned Conservateur of the Oriental antiquities in the Louvre. 
He has published many articles dealing with the cylinders in the French archeo- 
logical journals and has collected some of the most important of them in his “ Les 
Origines Orientales,” a work of the highest value, and in “De Sarzec’s Décou- 
vertes en Chaldée,” edited by M. Heuzey. To the labors of the two French scholars 
Méenant and Heuzey the study of the art of the cylinders owes more than to all 
other scholars combined. 

I may also refer to a succession of short articles on the cylinders published by 
myself, mostly in American archeological journals, during the last twenty-five years, 
some of which will be cited in their place. 


CHAPTER III. 


CLASSIFICATION OF CYLINDERS. 


The prime classification of the Oriental cylinders must be chiefly geographical 
and national, although with this would partly coincide a chronological classification. 

1. First would come, soon to be dismissed as of comparatively little conse- 
quence or influence, the Egyptian cylinders, but valuable for the cartouches of 
kings. “They were local and peculiar, unrelated generally to those of other coun- 
tries, and were superseded in Egypt by the use of the scarab. They appear in the 
dawn of [:gyptian history, and were then fairly common, and they are occasionally 
met with in an archaizing way as late as the twenty-second dynasty. The fact 
that both Egypt and Chaldea in their earliest period used the cylinder seal is one 
of the evidences on which scholars rely to prove that the two civilizations had 
somewhere a common origin. As Egyptian cylinders have been so fully treated 
by Egyptologists, they are not included in this volume. 

2. The next class we may call the Chaldean, to indicate the country and the 
successive kingdoms of early Chaldea, as Babylon itself did not emerge into history 
until many centuries after the art of cutting seals had been invented. The earlier 
kingdoms in Babylonia were rather Chaldean than Babylonian, the term Chaldea 
being used to designate mainly the southern portion of Babylonia. The kingdoms 
that arose there before the supremacy of Babylon was achieved by Hammurabi 
might more properly be called either Sumerian or Semitic, or, if we prefer, Elamite 
or Arabian; but the term Babylonian has come to include the whole succession of 
kingdoms which, from the dawn of history to the conquest of Cyrus over Nabonidus, 
or even until the capture of Babylon by Alexander and the substitution of a West- 
ern for an Eastern civilization, held possession of the southern valley of the Tigris 
and Euphrates. Nor is it possible, before the time of the Persian conquest under 
Cyrus, to separate the art of Elam from that of Babylonia. There were many 
wars between the two, with alternate conquests. The lower valleys of the Tigris 
and those of the Ulai and Choaspes form a single terrane separated by no natural 
barrier. In early times Chaldea and Elam were one country. 

3. The third division of the subject will be concerned with Assyrian cylinders, 
and it includes all those produced under the influence of the Assyrian Empire. 
Here, while the Babylonian influence was immense and while the ruling element 
of the population was Semitic, from Babylonia there came in, coincident with a 
new chief god Assur, new motives in art and religion—whether original or gathered 
from the surrounding Mesopotamian or Syrian tribes or those further north in 
the highlands of Asia Minor, we can not always tell. The general type continued 
long after the fall of Nineveh, and cylinders will be called Assyrian that were prob- 
ably made and used in Southern Babylonia in the latest periods of the use of the 
cylinder. 

4. A fourth chief division will be the Syro-Hittite, which can not be sharply 
separated into subdivisions, Hittite, Syrian, Phenician, and Mycenzan. It is often 

19 


20 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


impossible to distinguish them. Practically one common civilization prevailed all 
over western Asia Minor and Syria to the border of the Arabian Desert and the 
Mediterranean Sea. 

5. A fifth class must be allowed to the Persian cylinders of the Achzmenian 
period. Their motives and their style of engraving are quite distinct from those 
both of Babylonia and Assyria. They had a short period, but are perfectly distinct. 

6. We must give a separate class to those cylinders which we may call Cypriote 
because hitherto found chiefly in Cyprus. ‘They are of a late period, and no more 
include the early purely Babylonian cylinders occasionally found in Cyprus than 
they would an early Egyptian cylinder found there. 

These six classes will include the great mass of cylinders. But there will 
remain a considerable number whose geographical or national origin we can not 
assign, as well as some exceptional ones that show quite other influences. Some 





few are dominated by the influences of an early Greek art, and may even belong 
to a period long subsequent to Alexander. Others, but very few, seem distinctly 
Arabian, or may be called Sabean. Then there are those which would appear, 
from their material and their subjects, to have come from some of the independent 
kingdoms or tribes of hill people to the north or east of Assyria, but it would be 
hazardous to conjecture more definitely. There are rude geometrical cylinders 
and those with indefinite lines or figures, which might have sprung up anywhere 
among an uncultivated people and which deserve no assignment of place and 
hardly a recognition in any classification. 

Under all these principal divisions there will be subdivisions, depending mainly 
on the subjects or gods figured on the cylinders, and also in part on the successive 
changes in style or subject in the course of centuries. It is to these divisions and 
subdivisions, classified as far as possible, that the succeeding chapters are devoted. 

The evidence as to the place to which a cylinder belongs within such a system 
of classification has to do both with the general division to which it must be assigned 


CLASSIFICATION OF CYLINDERS. 2 


and to the period within that division. A cylinder may be clearly Babylonian, but 
it may belong to the primitive Chaldean, the Middle, or the late Babylonian period. 
There are certain lines of evidence that are conclusive, and, fortunately, for 


Babylonia and Assyria, as for Egypt, they are fairly abundant. 


ROYAL CYLINDERS. 


First among these are the cylinders which bear the name of a king or viceroy, 
whose date is known from historical documents. Such are the seals of the Elder 
Sargon (fig. 26), of Ur-Engur (fig. 30), of Gudea (fig. 39), and, to come down to a 
very late period, of the Persian Darius (fig. 43). Cylinders that have the same general 
characters as these can with sufhcient certainty be referred to the same gen- 
eral period. The resemblance must cover shape, size, and the character of the 
writing, as well as the art. “There are two or three dozens of such royal cylinders, 
mostly belonging to the period of Gudea and his predecessors. 


YU 
4 
N 
Sif 
if 
N 
Yh 


ea 





The following may be specified: 

1. The cylinder of Sargon I. (fig. 26). Here the period is early Babylonian. 
According to the chronology given by Nabonidus it is about 3800 B. C., although 
we may be obliged to reduce it by five hundred years, or even by the one thousand 
years desired by Lehmann. Here the art is free and of the best, and it will give, 
for size and general style, the approximate date of a large number of cylinders, 
some of which are of equal merit artistically, while others, made for less distinguished 
owners, are of a less fine design and finish. 

2. A cylinder of Bin-gani-sharali, King of Agade and grandson of Sargon I. 
(fig. 27). The inscription reads, “Bin-gani-sharali, son of the king. Izilum, 
scribe, thy servant.” 

3. Cylinder of Bin-gur-akhi, King of Erech (fig. 28, Ménant, 1, p. 104; Schrader, 
“Keilinschr. Bib.,” 11, p. 84). This is one of the most valuable seals belonging to 
the British Museum. About 3000 B.C. It reads: “To Bin-gur-akhi, King of 
Uruk; the scribe, thy servant.’’—Winckler. 

4. Another cylinder (fig. 29), of lapis-lazuli, belonging to the Metropolitan 
Museum and of very archaic period, where we have Gilgamesh, both en face and in 
profile, fighting lions and ibexes. The inscription is not easy to decipher, but may 
be read, “ King —— devoted ruler of Erech.” 


Pps SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


5. The cylinder of Ur-Engur, King of Ur (fig. 30). We note here the seated god 
and the approaching figures, the two styles of headdress, and the unusual ox’s leg 
and high back to the god’s seat. About 2500 B.C. It reads: “[To] Ur-Engur, 
mighty hero, King of Ur, [has] Hashkhamir, governor of Ishkun-Sin, thy servant, 
[devoted] this.’’—Jensen. 

6. A cylinder of Dungi, King of Ur, about 2450 B.C. (fig. 31). It represents 
a standing god before an altar, from which rises a flame, with two figures in the 
attitude of adoration. The inscription reads: “To Meslamtaea, right arm of 
Lagash, for the life of Dungi, the strong hero, king of Ur, Kilulla-guzala, son of 
Urbaga, has made [this seal]. Of this seal, ‘May my king in his benevolent 


purpose live.’ Such is its name.”’—Thureau-Dangin. 


rear Feo = q f \ 
ta All ial Ste sy, 
Ne ei I ] <n i RA] NIZE “i 
PY ls NL Ae Pay = 
4 oi Die Wy & 
"7 T 


A 


Toy 


— 


= ——=> <j 
BIOAF if, y wo 
g <= 














7. Another cylinder of Dungi, with the same general design (fig. 32), has 
this inscription: ‘To Nusku, supreme minister of Enlil, his king, for the life of 
Dungi, strong hero, king of Ur, king of Sumer and Akkad, Ur nab . . . , patesi 
of Nippur, son of Lugal-ezen-dug, patesi of Nippur, has vowed [this].”— 
Thureau-Dangin. In both these cylinders it is to be noticed that the second 


figure in the attitude of devotion does not wear a flounced garment, but one of 
simple design. 


Dp 


. 
LW ty 
3 


= ae 
ry 
our _\ 
Se 
aN 











M : aT A | z3) A) Ten nm =e } 
itt TLR i i 
hi Sy ag Vania ul 

tit |\ Se buna | | ed 
== Y/ lf, ea Vy SEZ 





8. Acylinder of Bur-Sin (fig. 33) of the second dynasty of Ur, about 2400 B. C., 
shows us a seated god, with a worshiper and the flounced goddess following him. 
The inscription reads: “Bur-Sin, mighty King, king of Sumer and Akkad; Amel- 
Enlil, the scribe, son of Shar . . . , his servant.” 

g. A cylinder of Gimil-Sin, King of Ur (fig. 34). The inscription reads: 
“Gimil-Sin, strong king, king of Ur, king of the four regions, Dug . . 
son of Bashagga, thy servant.””—Thureau-Dangin. 

10. Another cylinder of Gimil-Sin (fig. 35), of which Ménant gives a drawing 
from an impression in the British Museum, but of whose ownership he was not 


oy scribe, 


CLASSIFICATION OF CYLINDERS. 23 


informed (1, R., 3, No. 11). The inscription reads: ‘“Gimil-Sin, strong hero, 
king of Ur, king of the four regions: Galu-annatu, scribe, son of Khesh[ag], thy 
servant.”’— Thureau-Dangin. 

Both these last cylinders show the same characteristics as the cylinder of 
Ur-Engur, except that the seat of the god is of the usual shape, with no back and 
a square frame. 











COL 
If] 
Mi Wit, 






’ 





Af 
INS 
SUE OBYS 


NA (- 
ANS 
cod 


11. Cylinder of Ibi-Sin, King of Ur (fig. 36, about 2350 B. C.), belonging to 
the Metropolitan Museum. This also is of the same general style as Nos. 9, 10 
(see Ward, Journ. Semitic Studies, April, 1903, pp. 149-151). The inscription reads: 
“Tbi-Sin, mighty king, King of Ur, servant of Ninib, Dura-sir, his servant.’’—Price. 

12. A cylinder imperfectly preserved (fig. 37), the inscription carrying the name 
of a king of Ur, but it is uncertain which of them it is, the name ending in “Sin.” 
This differs from the three last in that the worshiper is not led by the hand (Mén., 
Depa o7 cen lelCdmNGrahi 2). 

13. A cylinder of Gudea (fig. 38), about 2500 B. C., patesi of Shirpurla, or 
Lagash.* Ménant, 1, p. 213; de Clercq, fig. 84. Here the art is very much the 
same as in those of the kings of Ur, but the worshiping figures approach the 
standing Sun-god. It reads: ‘‘ Gudea, patesi of Lagash, Lugal-me, scribe, thy 
servant.”—Thureau-Dangin. 

14. A very beautiful cylinder bearing simply the name of Gudea, patesi of 
Shirpurla, is shown in fig. 395. It is repeated and described under figs. 368a and 650. 

15. A cylinder of Ankisari, King of Ganhar (fig. 37a), whose date is unknown, 
but he appears to be older than Gudea. 








* The word patesi is often translated viceroy. But Jensen gives reasons (Schrader, Keilinschr. Bib., 1, p. 6) for believing 
that the word patesi does not mean viceroy, but officer. Gudea was independent, and only calls himself “ patesi” of Nin-girsu, 
his god. 





24 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


16. Another seal of Gudea (fig. 39) gives us the usual design of a worshiper 
led into the presence of a seated deity, who is this time a goddess (see Am. Journ. 
Sem. Studies, xx, p. 115). It reads: “Gudea, patesi of Shirpurla; Abba the scribe, 
thy servant. ’’—Price. 

17. A seal of Urlama, a patesi of Tello who succeeded Gudea; fig. 39a. (See 
Heuzey, Rev. d’Assyr., v, p. 139: “Découvertes,”’ p. 307.) 


= Fee 
Kaeo TT 
Zi 
7\ 


bar / 
pal 
iescuaa ta 


q A 
a= =f 


W bu 
Bates 


LA 





BE 
(_Tinl 
Jean 








18. A cylinder of the Kassite King Burnaburiash (fig. 40), 1420 or 1400 B.C., 
belonging to the Metropolitan Museum. The inscription reads: “ Hadad, supreme 
god of judgment, who rains fertility, who bestoweth plenty, heart-rest, the drink 
ashnan his gift is that which he maketh to be good: Sutakh the Kassite, servant 
of Burnaburiash, King of the world.”—Pinches. 

19. A cylinder of the Kassite King Kurigalzu (fig. 40a), 1410 or 1350 B.C. 
(Ménant, 1, 193). These two last cylinders have the same style, fixing that of the 
Kassite period. ‘This seal belonged to Duriulmas, an officer of Kurigalzu. It is 
translated: ‘‘Duriulmas, son of Belsunu, servant of Kurigalzu, King of Assar, 
sakkanaku of the city Dur-Kurigalzu.”—Ménant. With it may be compared a 
similar cylinder in the de Clercq Collection (No. 257) which belonged to a son of 
a Duriulmas, who may have been another person. 

20. Another cylinder of Kurigalzu belonging to Terimangar (fig. 41a). See 
fig. 539 for description. 

21. A cylinder belonging to Sakkanaku, son of Kurigalzu (fig. 41). Ménant, 
Ty peuloz: 


CLASSIFICATION OF CYLINDERS. 25 


22. Cylinder of Urzana (fig. 42), 
King of Muzazir, an Armenian district 
(Ménant, 1, p. 95). Probably about 
700 B.C. The inscription reads: 


Seal of Urzana 

King of the City Muzazir, 

the Capital city, fortified, 
of ushu stone 

which is built high up 

on dangerous mountains 

in full view.—Price. 





2 


23. Cylinder of Darius, King of Persia (fig. 43). This seal is remarkable not 
only for the quality of its work, but for the fact that only the name of the king 
is given, as its owner, and not that of any scribe or officer (Ménant, 1, p. 166). 
The inscription is bilingual. The Persian reads: “J am Darius the King,” and 
the Assyrian is a little fuller: “I am Darius the great King.” 

Besides these there may be mentioned several royal cylinders whose date is 
unknown, or which contain no figured design, but only an inscription. Such are: 

24. A seal of [Dun] gi, King of Erech, in the Metropolitan Museum, some- 
what broken, and containing simply an inscription. 

25. Another of Gudea, belonging to the Museum of The Hague (Ménant, 
“Catal. de La Haye,” p. 59, plate vi, No. 35; Schrader, “Keilinsch. Bib.,” 1, 
p- 64), gives the names of Gudea and his wife. It is barrel-shaped and merely 
inscribed. Perhaps this should hardly be called a seal cylinder, but rather a votive 


SS \, 
: TLE 
Ren ws 
ae Se 


> 
a 
= 
CS 


i< 
Lt Ve 
Fa 





KES SUE 
t 
i A 7 
Ay 
NAN 


Ns 


= 


Se) 4 


ae 


Va 
if 


POA VVVVURV AAA 


4 
SS 
% 


48 
IMPRESSIONS ON TABLETS OF ROYAL CYLINDERS. 


Quite as valuable as the royal cylinders themselves, for tests of classification, 
are the impressions of cylinders on tablets, whenever these impressions happen 
to. be distinct, and either the cylinders impressed contain a royal name or the tablet 
contains a written date. Of the impressions which contain a royal name whose 
approximate date is known, the number is few. ‘The following may be named: 

1. A cylinder with the name of Sargon, drawn by M. Heuzey (“ Découvertes 
en Chaldée,” p. 281) (fig. 44). On this fine cylinder Gilgamesh is seen attacking 
a lion, breaking the lion’s back over his knee. The style of the inscription and the 
design are of the same noble workmanship as the splendid de Clercq cylinder 
which shows Gilgamesh giving water to the buffaloes (fig. 26). 


26 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


2. An impression of a second cylinder (fig. 45) bearing the name of Sargon I. 
also published by M. Heuzey (“Découvertes en Chaldée,” p. 282). The cylinder 
is of extraordinary size and of an entirely different design, showing a seated god- 
dess, with a worshiper before her and an 
attendant behind her carrying a weapon or 
rod on her shoulder. The arrangement of 
the inscription is unique; and the tree is to 
be observed. 

3. A third cylinder carrying the name of 
Sargon I. (fig. 46) is figured by M. Heuzey 
(Découvertes en Chaldée,” p. 283); but of 
this there remain only the inscription and the 
tree, a tree of the mountains, like a cypress. 

4. [The impression of a cylinder found at 
Bismya (fig. 47) gives a lion attacked, probably by Gilgamesh, and has Sargon’s name. 

5. Yet another, also from Bismya, shows us Gilgamesh attacking a buffalo 
or bull (fig. 48), and has Sargon’s name. 

6. The impression of a cylinder bearing the name of Naram-Sin (fig. 49), 
son and successor of Sargon I., 3750 B.C. (or later), also published by M. Heuzey 
(“Découvertes en Chaldée,” p. 284). Here we have another representation of 
Gilgamesh fighting a lion, and another deity with rays from his shoulders. 








7. A second cylinder of Naram-Sin (fig. 50) is also given by M. Heuzey (“ Dé- 
couvertes en Chaldée,”’ p. 285). Different portions are fortunately impressed on 
the two sides of a fragment of a tablet, so that the main part of the design and 
inscription can be restored. A deity, probably seated, with rays from his shoulders 
receives a worshiper, and the cypress tree is behind him. This is an extraordinarily 


CLASSIFICATION OF CYLINDERS. 27 


valuable series of designs on cylinders belonging to the same half century, and in 
a very early period of Chaldean art. 

8. Another impression of a cylinder of a patesi of Ra in which a 
sun-god with rays ascends a mountain. An accompanying goddess presents the 
worshiper with a sacrifice (fig. 50a). See de Sarzec, “ Découvertes,” p. 286. 





p OF ( 








vit 


wy 


50e 51 

g. Impression of a cylinder of Dungi (fig. 51), King of Ur, on a tablet belong- 
ing to myself, hitherto unpublished. It represents Gilgamesh fighting a winged 
monster. ‘The inscription reads: 

To Dungi, 

of royal seed 

by Ur-Dumuzi, 
Scribe, his 
servant. —PRice. 

10. A very complete impression of a seal with the name of Dungi is to be seen 
in fig. 51a. ‘The god holds a two-handled vase, and the goddess presents a wor- 
shiper. Before the god is a peculiar sort 
of altar. The inscription is given by 
Heuzey as “Dungi, mighty hero, King of 
Ur, King of the four regions; Ur-[pasag ?] 
the scribe, thy servant.’ Above the in- 
scription is the lion-headed eagle of 
Lagash. 

11. Another cylinder impression on 
an unpublished tablet belonging to myself, fic 
with name of Dungi, King of Ur (fig. eae A worshiper is led to a seated bearded 
god. 





28 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


12. Yet another cylinder impression on a tablet belonging to me and containing 
the name of Dungi, fig. 52. Here two female figures present the worshiper to the 
deity. 

= In fig. 52a we have the design on a tablet dated in the reign of Gimil-Sin, of 
Ur. Here the type is a usual one, except that a lion is on the god’s seat and another 
lion lifts a standard behind him. For further discussion of this seal see fig. 3032. 

14. Another impression on a tablet (fig. 52) shows still the same design, so 
characteristic of the period. The long inscription dedicates the cylinder to the king 
Gimil-Sin, who may be represented as a god on the cylinders, as Heuzey suggests; 
for the sign of divinity precedes his name as is not unusual on these cylinders from 
Agade and Ur. It reads: “Gimil-Sin, mighty King, King of Ur, King of the four 


: é : ’ 
regions, Arad-Nannar, the supreme viceroy, son of Ur-Dunpauddu, his servant.”’ 





oa 


_—_— 


onooo0og 





DATED TABLETS WITH CYLINDER IMPRESSIONS. 


Yet another conclusive test of style appears in the multitude of tablets impressed 
with a seal which bears no royal name, but in which there is a date given in the 
inscription on the tablet itself. Most business tablets are dated with the day and 
month and the year of the reigning king. ‘The impression of the seal is necessarily 
contemporaneous with the writing, and we thus have a sure index of the style of 
seal in use at the date given. While thousands of these tablets have been pub- 
lished, unfortunately in very few cases are the figures on the seals given, so that 
we have not any considerable body of them accessible to scholars. It is much to be 
desired that some scholar with free access to European and American collections 
may give us drawings of seals impressed on dated tablets, not wholly for the purpose 
of providing fresh evidence of the period of the seals, but still more because we shall 
thus be supplied with a considerable number of new types and designs not represented 
upon the cylinders that are gathered in the public cabinets. No scholar except 
Ménant has entered this field and those collected by him* are mostly of the later 








* “Empreintes de Cylindres Assyro-Chaldéens relevées sur les contrats d’intérét privé du Musée Britannique.” 


CLASSIFICATION OF CYLINDERS. 29 


Babylonian or the Persian period, with a few of an earlier period. We must also 
mention the seals on tablets of the Kassite period published by A. T. Clay in his 


*“Cassite Rulers.” 


CHANGES OF STYLE. 


We know from a multitude of inscriptions, both on clay tablets and cut in 
stone, what was the style of the writing from the earliest Chaldean period until 
that of the Seleucida. ‘The very earliest writing is yet of a somewhat pictorial 
character. Then followed the linear writing, in vertical columns, to be followed 
by writing in lines from left to right and made to conform, even on stone, with 
the wedge-shaped writing on clay. The wedge writing of Gudea’s time is more 
complicated than that of the Middle and Later Empire, except as in late times 
an archaizing style was sometimes affected. Also the northern Assyrian style 
came to differ considerably from the Babylonian, being simpler. All these appear on 
the cylinders and afford a reliable test of the period to which the cylinders belong. 

Besides these primary and conclusive tests of the period to which a cylinder 
belongs, may be mentioned some others that are perfectly satisfactory, but of a 
less immediate source of evidence. Thus, in the cylinders of the earliest period 
the art is of an archaic character not to be confounded with the scratchings of later 
incompetence. The profile face is mainly a great eye and a prominent nose, giving 
the head a marked likeness to that of a bird, so that it has sometimes been supposed 
that bird-headed human figures were intended. The garments are much simpler 
and shorter, and the figure is more often nearly naked. In this earliest period 
and that which immediately succeeded it the general design was usually freer and 
more artistic, while in the Middle kingdom, from the time of Gudea and Ham- 
murabi, a certain fixity and conventionality characterized the designs. Again, the 
Assyrian period was marked by new conventions and by a different style of dress. 
The gods had wings and other dress and weapons, while a fresh body of symbols 
was adopted. 

But before the Assyrian kingdom arose the Kassite period had changed the 
shape and size of the cylinder. It affected long religious inscriptions, with often 
only a single figure in the attitude of worship accompanied by symbols. ‘The 
Second Empire of Nebuchadnezzar retained pretty much the style and designs 
of the Kassite dynasty, but developed the design and reduced the inscription. 
In the immediately succeeding period of the Achezmenian kings of Persia we find 
a fresh style, occasionally with more liberty, while the dress of men represented 
was of a new and peculiar style suggesting trousers. There is a paucity of design, 
the most frequent being that of a god fighting one or two lions. 

Similarly the cylinders of the Syro-Hittite period have usually a family likeness. 
The rope-pattern is extremely common, hardly found elsewhere. . The work is mostly 
fine, the figures delicate, and part of the design is often in two registers, in which 
are seen sphinxes, lions, etc., facing each other, while a new series of deities appears 
in many cases. All these characteristic and differentiating marks will be fully 
illustrated as the various classes of cylinders are described. 


CHAPTER IV. 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: THE EAGLE OF LAGASH. 


On what appears to be the most archaic class of cylinders inscriptions are 
seldom found. We must judge of their age chiefly by their style of art, their ma- 
terial, and their shape, although occasionally an inscription of a very old type 
appears. We are fortunate in possessing bas-reliefs on stone, with figures and 


( 
Ree 


Upp 
aESA 
“Ss 


FLL rT TO ge 


al 












WINE Jota 


menses BIPLIEB ILI NEM ITUNES 


54 


names of kings, from Nippur (Niffer) and Shirpurla (Tello), which give us the 
style of the primitive art. Examples are given in figs. 53, 54, 55. 

The materials of cylinders are usually white marble, aragonite, or shell, occa- 
sionally serpentine or lapis-lazuli. Lapis-lazuli appears at the earliest period. The 


a rs 
L771 DITTIT TL AL 
LUMEN SSR ROARACANN 


56 





use of aragonite, a crystalline semi-translucent variety of calcite, of a slightly 
greenish tinge, is peculiar to these cylinders. In shape they are usually purely 
cylindrical (not concave-face); and in size they are generally rather large, but some- 
times slender and of a length more than twice the diameter. Very frequently they 
are in two registers separated by one or more lines. 

30 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: THE EAGLE OF LAGASH. 31 


One of the most frequent designs on these archaic cylinders is a mythologic 
bird, which has been called the eagle of Lagash. For a further consideration of 
this emblem see Chapter Lx1x. It can be best understood from its representation 
on the vase of Entemena (see Heuzey, “Le Vase d’argent Entéména’’) (fig. 56). 





aS NN. ay 
wee YEA s 


CBOEEEISHD 
51 58 

This eagle has been designated the Standard of Lagash by Heuzey, who first studied 
it in this fine silver vase brought from Tello (also called Lagash or Shirpurla) by 
M. de Sarzec. ‘The Chaldean artists of this earliest period delighted in variations 
of the design, representing the eagle as seizing in its talons two lions or bulls or 
ibexes. In fig. 57 he seizes two reversed ibexes by the horns. This is an unusually 
short cylinder and thicker than usual, and of only one register. The bilateral 
symmetry of the eagle between the two ibexes is repeated, by the hero being placed 
between them on the other side and seizing each ibex by the leg. The extremely 
archaic drawing of the hero will be observed, with the bird-like head and the simple 
girdle around his waist holding probably the breech-cloth. 

Another example of the same design is seen in fig. 58, 
in which the ibexes fallen on one knee are seized by the 
upper foreleg or breast. ‘This cylinder is remarkable for 
what is, before the Hittite period, the very unusual, if not 
unique, design of a rope-pattern in the lower register, not to 
be expected before the Hittite period. See also figs. 95 and 
108a. In fig. 59 we have the same design, but the eagle’s tail is greatly extended. 

We must assign to a somewhat later period the unusually elaborate design in 
fig. 60, although the inscription of a dupshar, or scribe, is in a very early style, but 














| 











\ 


VY : 

WY 
WV VV 
Al 


| 


YZ, 





63 
the heads of the human figures appear considerably less archaic than those in most 
cylinders which bear this design of the eagle of Lagash. This cylinder, which is of 
quartz, is in three registers, and shows in the middle register two eagles alter- 
nating with rams, which they seize on each side, one by the fore legs, the other 


32 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


by the hind quarters. Almost precisely like this is fig. 61. Another fine example 
of this type is seen in fig. 62. Here again we have the claws of the eagle on the 
rumps of the two ibexes; while in the upper register are shown a gate with a porter 
on one side and a seated figure on the other, and a presumably female figure is 





drinking through a tube from a vase, a design which will be considered later. 
Nearly the same scene is shown in fig. 62a. We have in fig. 63 an unusually fine 
example of this eagle of Lagash seizing two ibexes by the rump. Hommel finds in 
this cylinder the name of Lugal-anda, the famous patesi of Sirgulla before Sargon. 
The six lines of inscription are read: 


To Lu-dingir— . . [Lugul-an-da, Hommel] by PA-AL (= magician) 
The mighty man of the god. .... his servant.—PRIcE. 
The king (or Lugal) (dingir) KA-DI 

tablet 





In these cases it will be observed that the perfect bilateral symmetry, which is 
so marked a feature in the later art, has not yet been achieved. ‘The eagle is not 
between two animals back to back or face to face. It is very common to have a 
series of animals or birds in the lower register of these cylinders. An example with 
the long-tailed oryx is in fig. 66. A similar long-tailed oryx is one of the two seized 
by the eagle in fig. 67, the other being a bull, and the two attacked by crossed lions. 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: THE EAGLE OF LAGASH. oo 


Two other examples are shown in figs. 68, 69, both worn, as usual. One of 
them shows a scorpion under the eagle, and the other a star. Here may be included 
a large cylinder in two registers (fig. 70) in which it is not clear that the eagle is 
seizing the two animals, perhaps deer, that are attacked by men in the lower regis- 
ter ; in the upper register are two seated deities. This is a shell cylinder of very 





rude, early work. Very peculiar is fig. 71, which is a thick marble cylinder in shape 
like those described in Chapter xxx. It shows the design substantially complete, 
either side up; for while the eagle seizes on each side a figure like Eabani, the body 
of a human figure, presumably Gilgamesh, so meets that of the eagle that when 
reversed he is seen grasping and lifting the Eabani figures by the feet. One 
Eabani seizes a reversed ibex and the other the lion which attacks it. 





70 


We have a modification of this design, which is so far as I know unique, in 
fig. 72. Here the eagle seizes two serpents. There is a tree, and a nude man, with 
a peculiar archaic head-dress, seizes a deer. This apparently belongs to the forest 
region of Elam. It reminds us of the myth of the eagle that killed the young 
serpents. 

3 


34 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


For a study of this favorite emblem of the kings of Lagash (Shirpurla), 
we are indebted to M. Heuzey’s description in ‘“Découvertes en Chaldée,”’ pp. 
261-264, plate 43, 43 bis, also “Le Vase d’argent d’Entéména.”’ ‘This wonderful 
silver vase (fig. 56), on a copper base, is by far the finest existing monument of the 
earliest metal work of Chaldea. The decoration is in two bands or registers, as 
in so many of the archaic cylinders. M. Heuzey remarks that this system of double 
zones of animals was transmitted to the Assyrian and Phenician bowls and through 
the Mycenzan to the decoration of the Greek ceramic work of an Oriental style. 


(“Comptes Rendus, 





ters, with which only we have to do here, is composed of four lion-headed eagles, two 
of which seize a lion with each talon, while one of the alternate eagles seizes a couple 
of deer, and the other a couple of ibexes. The whole circle is composed with the 
most elaborate bilateral symmetry, and the lions each bite at the head of the deer 
or ibex opposite him. These fantastic and monstrous birds have, as M. Heuzey 
remarks, remained popular in oriental story, as the rok of the Arabs, the karshipta 
of the Persians, the human-headed garudha of India, and the harpies of the Greeks. 
From this eagle, in its heraldic attitude necessitated by its attack on the two animals, 
was derived the two-headed eagle, in the effort to complete the bilateral symmetry 








ee 


of the bird when represented with an eagle head turned to one side, like the double 
face of the human bifrons. ‘This double-headed eagle appears in Hittite art (figs. 
854, 855, 856) and is continued down through Turkish and modern European royal 
symbolism. ‘The lion-headed eagle would appear to have belonged originally to the 
special worship of either Ishtar or Bau and Ningirsu, the gods of Lagash; it was 
called Im-gig and was the particular emblem of the kings of Lagash. We find it 
represented with lions in the art of the first known king of Lagash, Ur-nina, on a 
square, perforated, earthenware plaque from the royal palace (fig. 73); or even 
earlier, without the lions, on a base of the date of Mesilim, King of Kish, supposed to 
be 4000 B. C. (fig. 74). The bird Im-gig is mentioned in the inscriptions of Gudea 
(see Thureau-Dangin, “Le Songe de Goudéa,” in Acad. des Inscr., 1901, pp. 112, 
and Z. A., 1903, p. 191). We there read, following M. Thureau-Dangin’s trans- 





ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: THE EAGLE OF LAGASH. 35 


bd 


lation: “The divine bird Im-gig, the emblem of his king,” which is in all prob- 
ability this lion-headed or eagle-headed emblem. This. eagle of Lagash, with an 
eagle head, was carried on a military standard (fig. 76) or with a lion’s head over 
lions, in the hands of the king (fig. 75). This may well have been the symbol of 
Ishtar similarly represented with lions, as Heuzey suggests (7b., p. 115), when he 
says that the eagle standard “appears to represent a warrior goddess.”’ ‘These 
figures come from the “Stele of Vultures,” made by King Eannadu, and now in 
the Louvre. 

It may, I think, be presumed that the eagle-headed eagle and the lion-headed 
eagle, and also the eagle with two eagle heads, have the same significance, when 
figured in front view with wings spread on each side. Unlike the grifin-dragon, 
it is a beneficent emblem, representing a protecting power. We find it in the art of 
the earlier Chaldean period, but in the middle and later period it quite disap- 
pears, although it is retained in the art of the Hittite region to the north and 
east of Assyria. Illustrations of it appear in figs. 188, 228, 229, 230, 776. 







| 
os 
S ft 
Ul UN 


we BZH 
— 
= an ee 


SS 
SS 
Se] 





= 
= 


iv 
= 
ams 





Le PAZ G 


k 
Y) 
Ws 







TAS 
ah 


Yin: 
Ae 






4 
~~ 


CHAPTER V. 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: THE SEATED DEITIES, 


Another of the more frequent designs of this archaic type, often accompany- 
ing the eagle of Lagash, is that of two seated deities facing each other (sometimes 
only one deity). The simplest form is seen in fig. 77, which gives us only the two 
deities and two worshipers. Other examples from the Berlin Museum are figs. 
78, 79. The latter cylinder is of lapis-lazuli, and we observe the shape of the vase 
held in the hand of the deity. Unfortunately, no such careful study of Babylonian 
pottery has yet been made as of that from Egypt, and we get from it little indica- 


fi saves eT E a “Al 
Fil TAY 


tion of antiquity. Usually we see either a vase ee the two deities, from which 
they seem to be drinking through a tube, or they are accompanied by a gate, 
which is at times winged. An illustration of the winged gate (also a second gate not 
winged) is seen in fig. 80. The deities are, like the human figures which may 
accompany them, always beardless, so that it is impossible to tell whether the 
seated figures, which it is safe to call deities, are male or female—very probably a god 
and a goddess. The significance of the winged gate is very difficult to determine. 















— a! | Srey ZI sb A => 
f=, MAYS SF De ets Ne 











ce aie ae amin inns 
2 ee | ay) 1K 
Same 
Ja 2 ze. Ke aN 














In the designs which represent the standing Shamash (Chapter x11!) rising over the 
mountains the accompanying gates are certainly the gates of the morning, and it 
may be that these are the same. We shall also see the winged gates in the designs 
which show us a crouched bull before or under the gate (Chapter xvi1), where again 
the symbolism of the gates is obscure. We are reminded of “the wings of the morn- 
ing,” Ps. 139: 9. But usually the gate is not winged. 

In fig. 82 the eagle seizes two ibexes in the lower register, one of which is also 
attacked in front by a human figure, while in the upper register the gate is between 
the backs of the two seated deities, between whom stands a figure in the attitude 

36 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: THE SEATED DEITIES. 37 


of adoration, and a second figure stands as porter by the gate. In this instructive 
cylinder we may fairly presume that the worshiper between the deities is the same 
personage as the hunter or hero in the lower register, while the porter standing by 
the gate in the upper register suggests very strongly that one of the seated deities 
is a Sun-god and that behind him is the gate of the morning from which he emerges. 
Similar cylinders are seen in figs. 62 and 62a. 











\J| PS WAS 
VNiSMS< 


= {7} 
Vane. 
8 


3 





In fig. 81 the gate appears to have two handles in place of two wings. This 
recalls M. Heuzey’s brilliant suggestion that the object held by a figure like 
Gilgamesh, at times when he seems to act as a warder or attendant, is the post of 
a door, or gate, with the handle as shown in fig. 648. Here the two deities sit 
facing each other, each apparently holding an object in his hand. The lower 
register shows two ibexes and a branch. 

In fig. 83 we have another case of the two seated deities with the gate in the 
upper register, while the eagle of Lagash, with the two small bulls crowded under 
its wings, appears in the lower register. The two deities in the upper register here 
appear to be drinking through tubes from the large bowl, or crater, between them. 
It might be possible to interpret this scene otherwise, as if the deities were enjoy- 
ing the smoke or odors from an offering. In another case, however (fig. 84), the 








two seated figures have a distinct vase between them, with a slender neck, and it 
seems difficult to interpret it in any other way than that they are drinking through 
a tube. We have here the two lions crossed, a device which we shall often meet 
in the cylinders of a little later period. Other cases of this design will be seen in 
figs. 85, 86, 87, 88. In the last case the design is repeated in two registers and the 
cylinder is of lapis-lazult. 

In many cases the principal design on these apparently most archaic cylinders 
is more simple, consisting of one or two seated figures, doubtless deities, and one 


38 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


or more approaching figures. If there is a second register it may have the eagle 
of Lagash, or a procession of birds or animals, as in figs. 60, 61, 66. Such a case 
we have in fig. 89. ‘The two deities sit, as usual, back to back with a pan drawn 


(a 27 \e 
ee 


SS Sf w\ 
SASS > s=i 





tree between their backs. One of them, with a fringed garment, appears to be a 
male and perhaps has a beard. Each deity holds a vase, and before each stands 
a worshiper or attendant. A gazelle occupies the middle of the design and above 
appears to be a large vase on a stand. The whole design is most 
archaic, and it is very interesting to observe that this cylinder is in 
lapis- Balik showing how early this material came into use. A yet 
simpler one is shown in fig. go, also very archaic, which shows 
simply the two deities and a single worshiper. A single deity, with 
three approaching worshipers, is shown in fig. g1. The lower regis- 
ter has the frequently repeated succession, here of three birds. ‘The extreme age 
of these cylinders and also the early period at which writing began to be used 
appear in a fragment of a lapis- -lazuli cylinder shown in fig. 92. Here the Samak 
is of the very oldest form, passing out of the pictorial stage. 
Doubtless much later, Bie yet belonging to the same type 
as fig. oI, is fig. 93. Here the illegible writing is much less 
archaic, as is also the drawing of the heads of the per- 
sonages. It is interesting to observe that the swans are 
floating on the water. This cylinder, introduced here 
for comparison, is of soft serpentine and probably comes ; ) 
from the Assyrian rather than the Babylonian territory, di dhac adhe 














SS 











° . . ON EL 
although very early in Assyrian history. ee 
Yet another very early aragonite cylinder is shown in 93 


fig. 94, where we again seem to see a difference between the fringed skirt of one 
deity and the plain skirt of the other, indicating the difference of sex. Each of the 
worshipers appears to present a tree, or branch, to the deity, in one case resting on 





a stand. The lower register shows perhaps antelopes. Fig. 96 is from an aragonite 
cylinder, very deeply cut. In the upper portion is a small seated deity, before what 
appear to be a man and two crossed animals. The remaining portion is very peculiar. 
A human figure kicks up one leg and supports two vases. There are two scorpions. 
But still more interesting and peculiar is the lapis-lazuli cylinder shown in fig. 95. 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: THE SEATED DEITIES. 39 


Here we have a two-horned seated deity apparently drinking from a vase through 
a tube. Before him comes a hero presenting a rampant lion, which he holds by the 
head and tail. Behind the deity is a gate and above the figures are two serpents 
moving in opposite directions, and so drawn as to suggest an origin for the rope- 
pattern which we observed in fig. 58 and which is also shown in fig. 507. Another 
peculiar, if not unique, example of this archaic style with the seated deity appears 
in fig. 97. Here the deity, a goddess if we can judge uncertainly from the coiffure, 





holds a branch in one hand, probably a vase in the other, and two soldiers, each 
armed with an ax, bring to her a prisoner with his hands tied behind him. It would 
be easy to conjecture, if there were any other trustworthy evidence of the practice, 
that these prisoners were brought as a human sacrifice. In fig. 98 we have a very 
archaic cylinder on which three scenes are depicted, all of conflict between warriors. 
In two cases there are two men represented as if fighting, while in the third group 
one of them is taken prisoner by the other, but the victor is symmetrically repeated. 

In fig. 99, from an archaic shell cylinder, we 
have two similar deities seated before a vase but not 
visibly drinking from it, while a third similar figure 1s 
seated behind them. In the lower register the lions 
attack a reversed ibex. In fig. 100 we seem pretty 
certain to have a case of a libation before a deity, the 
vase of wine or oil being poured out by one of the 
naked servants of the worshiper, while a second 
brings perhaps another vase or offering. Above a gate is the eagle of Lagash. 

A very interesting cylinder, whose ownership is unknown to me, is shown in 
fig. 101 and is drawn from inked impressions which I obtained in Baghdad from 
a dealer there. It does not appear to be of the most archaic period, but yet to 
follow that style. In the upper register are three seated figures, one of whom holds 
a kind of lyre. There are five other standing figures, one of whom is incased in a 
gateway or frame. In the lower register are two seated figures and six others, of 
which one is holding an amphora on a stand. 





CHAPTER VI. 
ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: A DEITY IN A BOAT, 


Occasionally on these most primitive cylinders we have the representation of 
a boat, sometimes in combination with other scenes. It would seem to be the god 
Ea, or more likely Shamash, who stands in a boat, in fig. 102, with streams from 
his shoulders. The boat is propelled by two oarsmen, through a stream or canal, 
beside which are reeds and a wild boar, while branches are attached to the god’s 
streams. The boat seems to be of the round coracle style still used in the East. If 
this is Shamash, it may be that he 1s sailing through the upper or lower heavens, as 
in fig. 293. It would appear to be a boat that is represented in fig. 103, where a 








deity sits in the boat and holds a line or a tube, perhaps for drinking, which pro- 
trudes from the vase. On the other side a small figure standing at the end of the 
boat seizes a similar line or tube. Behind the seated figure is another vase, and a 
goat, perhaps, stands outside the boat. In this case it is not absolutely certain that 
it is a boat that is represented. But there can be no doubt about fig. 104. In this 
cylinder a portion of the design covers its entire length, while the rest is in two 
registers. In the single-register portion a seated goddess, the sex designated by 
the long hair, rests her feet on an animal, perhaps the lion of Ishtar. Before her 


Veer 












is an altar and an approaching worshiper brings a goat as an offering. tp i eS eT design 
of a worshiper with a goat, here most primitive, becomes exceedingly frequent 
somewhat later. In the upper register of the remaining portion we see the familiar 
two seated deities and the gate, while the lower register gives us a composition which 
piques curiosity. In a boat are two figures, one seated in the stern apparently 
steering or poling, while the other stands at the prow and seems to be addressing 
two approaching figures, one of which carries a weight, slung by a stick over his 
shoulder, perhaps an animal or a big fish. Is it possible that this design represents 
the passage of the soul of the dead over a river, as in the Egyptian and Greek 
mythologies ? 
40 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: A DEITY IN A BOAT. 41 


Unfortunately, the four following cylinders that show us the human-headed 
boat are, with one exception, badly worn. ‘Three of them are of shell, and all very 
archaic. ‘They make it plain that the boat was represented at times as having the 
human form at the prow, as if it were half man, rather than having a figure-head of 
the human shape. An illustration of this is seen in fig. 105, where it is not easy to 
see what the boat carries, if boat it be and not rather a monster with the tail of a fish 
or serpent. Indeed itis both. While it is a boat and carries passengers, as we shall 
see on another cylinder, fig. 108, there apparently a seated figure, the living boat is yet 
a composite creature possibly related to the man-fish, Oannes according to Heuzey, 
which occasionally appears in cylinders of a later agtedl He seems in fig. 105 to be 


A Se NS Lip 
eg fae 
iN E 


pursuing a bull, eA with a whip or very likely using an oar. May we not, 
however, suppose that we have here a representation of the monster Apsu (Apason), 
who represented the original chaos in the primitive form of the myth, under which 
the contest was between Ea and Apsu (with Mummu), a myth which, transferred 
to Nippur, became a contest of Enlil and Tiamat, and later, at Babylon, of Marduk 
and Tiamat. This change consists in making the original male Apsu into a female 
Tiamat. The lower register shows a man of an archaic type and three goats. 
Two similar examples of such a composite man-boat or man-fish we find in 
the de Clercq collection. In fig. 106 the upper register gives us the eagle of Lagash 
seizing two crouched animals, bulls or ibexes, while the lower register shows the 
boat with a human prow, within which is at least one figure. ‘The human portion 


iy 


: 


_ 











holds in his hands a three-forked branch, which might perhaps be considered the 
trident of a sea-god. A similar three-forked object is seen in the hand of the god 
on the Dungi cylinder (fig. 31). The animal he may be pursuing is lost in the 
disintegration of the material, although a human figure is preserved. Yet another 
design much like it is seen in fig. 107. We have here the same human-prowed 
boat or man-fish, although it is not certain what passengers are carried. But we 
have the same three-forked object carried in the creature’s hand and the animal 


42 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


in front is clearly shown. ‘The upper register has two seated figures, a worshiper, 
and a gate. Both of these cylinders from the de Clercq collection are of shell (not 
“white marble’) and are badly decomposed. In the cylinders with boats some 
scholars have seemed to see a representation of the passage of Gilgamesh over the 
waters of death, which he was not allowed to touch, and which he passed with 
twelve strokes of the oar. Unfortunately, there is no clear evidence that any of the 
seals present this portion of the Gilgamesh story. 

One of the best examples of this design, and a most surprising one, is seen in 
fig. 108. It is of shell, unusually well preserved, and is in two registers. The upper 
one distinctly gives us a human head and body, perhaps feminine, which ends in a 


fish or serpent. 
Turpiter atrum 


Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne. 


The head of the monster, as that of the seated figure, is crowned with the horns 
of a bull (bison); its head has a large queue and the tail ends in a circle with a 
point, possibly suggesting a scorpion. The monster seems to handle an oar. ‘There 
would seem to be rays from the shoulders of the seated figure. It is impossible to 
recognize the animal before the boat, perhaps a lion, so far as the feet and tail are 
concerned. Nor is it easy to understand the meaning of the curved line over the 
animal, which seems to be connected with what might appear, but can not be, 
wings behind the standing man with bull’s horns and carrying a long staff. Nor 
can we make out what is the object over the animal. The lower register is quite 
as interesting. We have a two-wheeled chariot, when a four-wheeled chariot 
would have been expected, as in fig. 127, and in it an archaic figure is seated and 
drawn by an ass. This is the earliest clear case in which we have the ass figured, 





Ly i ay a 














ws AANA 


\SEES SE N 


SANNA ARAN CLS TS 





108% 109 


and for driving, not riding, but compare fig. 119. It can not well be a horse. It 
would appear that the reins are held by a ring in the nose, or a cord about the lip 
of the ass, yet this is not certain. The charioteer is followed by three armed soldiers, 
one of whom carries a spear, one an ax, and one perhaps a sling. ‘There is an ax 
beside the charioteer, and a dog follows. ‘This is certainly a most interesting and 
extraordinary, as well as puzzling, cylinder of importance in the history of domestic 
animals. Very likely the cylinder shown in fig. 108a is of a similar design, but it is 
sadly worn. It is also remarkable for what may be a purely accidental occurrence 
of a rude form of the rope-pattern which belongs to the Hittite period (see fig. 58). 

Another extraordinary example of what simulates a boat is seen in fig. 110. 
Here the long snake-like animal has become a quadruped, not with the human 
head, and seated in it is apparently the goddess Bau with her characteristic bird, 
as seen in figs. 230-234. There is also a second animal, a vase, and probably a plow. 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: A DEIYrY IN A BOAT. 43 


Clearer than in any other case in which we have a human-bodied boat is the 
meaning of the design in fig. 109. It is plain here that we have the seated Shamash 
in a boat, as we see him in fig. 293. He holds the emblems of chief authority, the 
ring and the rod. Under him, as a footstool, are two bulls, possibly with human 
heads. ‘They are a sort of cherubim for his throne, for at the date of this cyl- 
inder the winged bull was not known to Babylonian art. They rather correspond 
with the footstool of the god seen in figs. 320, 323. ‘The boat itself is clearly divine 
and, with its human form at the two ends, is the throne- 
bearer of the god over the waters, doubtless the upper 
waters of the heavens. The accessories are the sun in 
the crescent, repeated, a small worshiper behind the god, 
another figure rising from the water in front of the boat, 
and perhaps another following behind. 

In a country like Phenicia or Palestine it was not natural to think of a god as 
riding in a boat. Accordingly we see the deity in a chariot, as in figs. 976-983. 
But in a land of canals, like Egypt or Babylonia, where all traffic was by water, it 
was natural to imagine the god borne over the sky in a boat, and not, like Phoebus, 
in a chariot. But as the chariot of Phoebus was drawn by horses, so here the boat 
must have the intelligence to go as required, and hence it was partly human, and 
the design is related to the biblical representations of the throne-bearers of Yahveh. 
If the boat itself was not a living creature it must have means to row or, rather, to 
pole it, as in fig. 102. 





Wl] 
Ee 


2 








110 





There may here be added the remarkable cylinder shown in fig. 1104, although 
it is not of the extreme archaic period. We have a not unusual design of Gilgamesh 
fighting a human-headed bull which is attacked on the other side by a lion. The 
second scene gives us two figures clad in short garments, in a boat of the shape of 
the coracle, or kufa, still in use on the rivers of Babylonia. The figure rowing 
may be the god Sin, and so represent the moon sailing through the heavens; or it 
may be Shamash represented in the same way. 


CHAPTER VII. 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: CONTESTS WITH WILD BEASTS. 


A considerable number of these very archaic cylinders of the primitive period 
show us contests with wild beasts and form a connecting link with the fights of 
Gilgamesh and Eabani with lions, bulls, and buffaloes, which we meet in the next 
and more advanced period. Such, for example, is fig. 111, where the human figures 
are thoroughly archaic in the bird-like head and the short, fringed garment, and 
the inscription is in the most primitive style, as in figs. 54, 73; and we have here 
a case of ha eae Serge 2a bilateral ia) BOE Se ma In the little = -lazuli seal (fig. 113) 


0) My) % os 7 


MINI AEST / I) 
Sa aS pa pee = EES 


















12 


i; mauta cis 





we have an ibex PG: LY 1 attacked by two lions, while a hunter attacks one of 
the lions with a knife or javelin. On rather thick, marble cylinders from southern 
Chaldea we somewhat frequently have this reversed ibex thus attacked. An example 
is seen in fig. 112, although this is not as thick as usual. Here two lions attack 
the ibex, and there is a scorpion. It is evidently bulls that are attacked by lions in 
fig. 114, one of the lions being in turn attacked by a hunter with a knife. Here 
the inscription, if there was one, over the head of what might be Eabani, is erased. 
It is an ibex with which the hunter contends in fig. 115. It is reversed between two 
lions, one of which the huntsman attacks with one weapon, while he holds another 


in his other hand. We have also the heraldic ee of Lagash with legs extended 








114 

toward the lion on one side and, in lack of the corresponding lion on the other 
side, toward the huntsman. In fig. 116 a fine archaic lapis-lazuli cylinder gives us 
two human figures, with a bull, two lions, and two ibexes. ‘The ibexes and lions 
are crossed, after an early convention, and one of the lions is attacking the bull. 
It is to be noticed that in none of the cylinders of this period do we find a representa- 
tion of the buffalo of the lower Babylonian swamps, but only of the bull of the 
forests and mountains. 

These three cylinders show but a single register, but the double register also 
appears. The material of the larger cylinders, however, mostly shell or aragonite, 

44 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: CONTESTS WITH WILD BEASTS. 45 


is so easily worn or decomposed that not many of them have come down to us in 
good condition through these six thousand years. One of those which have thus 
suffered by the dissolving away of the calcareous material is the aragonite cylinder 
shown in fig. 117. Here both registers display such contests of animals and hunters, 
a number of the ibexes being reversed. These reversed ibexes or goats are apt to 
be very puzzling on soft cylinders that are badly worn so as to show little more than 


eae 


116 









the cross lines. An unusual Pace aha: Fig RRO in the Berlin Museum, fig. 118, admirably 
preserved, either of undecayed shell or white marble (it is difficult to distinguish 
them always on inspection), has, as is occasionally the case, the two registers not 
separated by lines, but encroaching on each other. It is also cut very deep. In 
the upper register we have the eagle of Lagash with his claws directed on one side 
toward a prostrate bull, on whose body a vulture is feeding, and on the other toward 


iw z= 


a lion which attacks a reversed ibex. In the lower register the hunter is in the midst 
of a number of lions and antelopes. The vacant spaces in the design we observe 
carefully filled with a scorpion and a star. The representation of the vulture feeding 
on a dead body is one that is found in the earlier sculptures from Tello. 

Another yet more unusual, but unfortunately ill-preserved, cylinder is shown 
in fig. 119. The drawing is decidedly archaic and the registers, as in the last case, 
are not separated but encroach on each other. The lower register shows the fight- 
ing of men and animals in the usual way. What is remarkable is that the upper 
register gives us not only a space for an effaced inscription, but also a four-wheeled 


46 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


chariot drawn by what looks very much like a horse. It is difficult to believe that 
the horse was known at this time to the people of the lower Euphrates or of Southern 
Elam. Although I have regarded it as evidence of the early appearance of the 





horse in Oriental art,* it is yet not unlikely that this animal is rather an ox. There 
is, however, a cylinder (fig. 108) which is archaic and of this general style, and 
which gives us a two-wheeled chariot drawn by an ass. The chariots of a later 
period are usually two-wheeled (except certain Syrian ones), and this chariot differs 
from the very early one seen in fig. 127 drawn by a dragon. 





—_————$— $e —__ OO 


( : 
i f Gh i 
Saw a 


B 


Another cylinder of the archaic type is interesting (fig. 120), partly because it 
is so well preserved, although of shell, and partly because it seems to be one of the 
earliest examples in which Gilgamesh, Eabani, and the human-headed bull appear, 
which may be said to rule a somewhat later period. Gilgamesh is holding two 
serpents, like an Oriental Hercules, while Eabani is fighting a lion and a bull. It 
is possible that the objects held in the hands of the figures in the upper register are 
also serpents. Fig. 121 is a very rude, archaic marble cylinder in which Gilgamesh 
is repeated, lifting in each hand a lion by the tail. In fig. 122 the crossed lions attack 
antelopes and the profile Gilgamesh carries a very peculiar weapon. Fig. 123 is a 
lapis-lazuli cylinder, very closely and deeply engraved, with a multitude of figures 
of contests of Gilgamesh and Eabani with lions and bulls. Another example of 
fighting with beasts appears in fig. 124, where we see the hunter between two ibexes, 








124 





* The Horse in Ancient Babylonia. Am. Journal of Archeology, 1898, pp. 159-162. 


ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: CONTESTS WITH WILD BEASTS. 47 


one of which is reversed. This well-preserved cylinder is of limestone. The upper 
register shows archaic, seated deities. A rude archaic cylinder composed entirely 
of crossed animals and monsters is shown in fig. 125. Here the two crossed bulls 
have but a single human head with horns. 

Very peculiar and unusual is the black serpentine cylinder shown in fig. 126. 
Here it is an eagle that is attacked by two heroes, while a third holds a staff. We 
have also a very old and infrequent designation of a deity, the star connected with 
what, in the worn cylinder, looks like a trident, and the connecting line crossed 
by two short lines. We see the same in fig. 254. In this design we seem to see a 
reversal of the usual subjection of two animals to the eagle, for here the eagle is 
conquered. 











In the study of the archaic cylinders we have found that certain types prevail, 
such as the eagle of Lagash; the seated deities apparently sucking some brewage 
through a tube from a large vase; and the human-headed boat. Other designs, 
such as the approaching worshipers and the fighting with wild beasts, continue in the 
succeeding period. Thus Gilgamesh, Eabani, and the human-headed bull we find 
already developed, and they continue to be favorite designs. ‘These archaic cylinders 
can not all be distinctly marked off and separated from some with other designs, 
and especially from those which give us figures of Gilgamesh and Eabani. Yet 
in a measure they represent an earlier type and group, not fully developed and 
differentiated. They show us the beginnings of Chaldean or Elamite art and the 
early phases of religious worship, as also of writing. When we come to the period of 
Sargon of Agade and of the rulers of Ur, we shall find art as fully developed as at 
any subsequent period, and the center of culture in southern Babylonia rather than 
in Elam. And yet it would appear that the origin was rather in Elam than in 


Chaldea. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


THE WINGED DRAGON SUBDUED. 


It is by a bare conventionality that the name of dragon is applied to the com- 
posite creature which, in the early Chaldean art, a god or goddess either rides or 
drives. Perhaps the most instructive and characteristic example is to be seen in 
fig. 127, from a shell cylinder of great age and happily quite well preserved. Here 
we see the “dragon” harnessed to a four-wheeled chariot on which a deity rides, 
while a nude goddess stands on the dragon’s back, between its wings. Before them 
stands a worshiper presenting an offering for the altar. The dragon has the head 
and forelegs of a lion, the wings and the hind legs of an eagle, and lifts a broad, 
feathered tail. He is, then, half lion and half eagle. He differs from the lion-headed 
“eagle of Lagash” in that he is a quadruped and not a biped. The shape of the 
chariot, higher in front than behind, strikingly resembles that of the chariot in which 
a goddess rides in certain Syrian cylinders (figs. 976-983). The dragon holds his 
head down in a dejected attitude; his tongue is forked, but it looks more as if he 
were vomiting, though this is hardly the meaning. It is more likely meant to repre- 
sent the ejection of venom. Nergal is described in a hymn, translated by Pinches 





(P. S. B. A., xxvii, p. 214), as “Dragon supreme pouring venom.” But in 
Gudea, Cylinder A, 26; 24, 25, as translated by Thureau-Dangin, “Sumerischen 
und Akkadischen Ko6nigsinschriften,” p. 119, we read, “a monster, a dragon, with 
tongue hanging out.’’ The god in the chariot brandishes a whip and the nude 
goddess carries a sheaf of weapons, apparently representing lightnings, in each 
hand. 

A figure in the Berlin Museum (fig. 128) has a similar chariot, but only a single 
deity. It is again a four-wheeled chariot drawn by the winged dragon, but the god 
has no weapons, simply holds the reins; and we do not see the usual tongue of 
the dragon. In both chariots the wheels have no spokes, but seem to be solid blocks. 
We can not but ask what was the animal which was actually driven with such a 
wagon, whether the ass or the ox. 

The British Museum has one of a different type, but equally giving us the 
dragon (fig. 129), of green serpentine. Here the god rides on the back of the monster, 
while a worshiper stands behind him. In front is a bull which Gilgamesh (profile) 
is stabbing with a dirk. Above stands a goddess with extended arms, from which 

48 


THE WINGED DRAGON SUBDUED. 49 


there fall streams of water to the ground. Behind Gilgamesh a vase in the sky 
pours out water which falls to the ground. With this very important cylinder 
should be compared those discussed later in Chapter xxxvii on the Spouting Vase. 

The St. Petersburg Hermitage possesses an unusual cylinder of this type, 
shown in fig. 1294. The same god and goddess stand on their respective dragons. 
Her head is turned back toward him. He raises his right hand, and each holds a 





iE 

rod in the left hand. A second scene shows us a god in a high hat, perhaps Gilga- 
mesh in profile, on one knee, who grasps a walking bull by the horn and presses 
its head down. In the field above are four other dragons, which seem each to be 
walking downward. No one of the six dragons shows the stream from the mouth. 

A very peculiar and much worn cylinder is shown in fig. 130. It is of marble 
and appears to be very archaic. “Two dragons, like those already shown, carry 
each a deity between its wings. The front deity is probably the nude goddess, and 








130 
the one on the following dragon appears to be a god holding some weapon or whip. 
In front of the god, and above the wing, is a small human figure, apparently a 
worshiper, not facing the god before whom he stands, but with his hand raised in 
the direction of the goddess in front. Between the two dragons stands a larger 
human figure, with both hands raised and spread apart, as if in surprise. Before 
the goddess on the dragon stands another human figure with one hand raised to his 
head, as if shading his eyes, facing the goddess. The remaining portion of this 
design is very peculiar. We have a winged deity standing over a small crouched 
human figure, which might be a crushed foe. His hands reach down and perhaps 
4 


50 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


grasp by the hair two human figures, one of which is naked and kneeling, while 
both have their hands raised above their heads as if in supplication to the deity 
above them. Such a winged deity with a human body, frequent enough in the later 
Assyrian art, is almost, if not quite, unknown in the primitive Babylonian art, and 
I have been a little inclined to suspect that in this cylinder the wings of this god are 
not original. But we must compare the next figure. 

In fig. 131 we have a very rude cylinder, excellently preserved, of mottled 
green serpentine. Here the dragons seem to have the head of a lion, but no two- 
parted tongue. The two hind legs have claws pointed backward as well as forward, 





like an eagle’s, and the tail and wings are those of a bird. But the general form of 
the dragon is that of a crocodile, apart from the tail, and the legs are distributed 
evenly along the length of the body in a most unnatural way. Between the wings 
of the front dragon stands a god with a weapon in one hand and a whip in the other. 
Between the wings of the other dragon stands apparently a goddess with both 
hands raised and with three horizontal lines on each side from her head, as if in 
place of the usual horns. Facing the first dragon is a winged human figure, naked, 
with no arms, with one leg, and a wide projection in front of the body, which may 
be the stump of another leg. There is a star between the two deities. I should 
have been strongly inclined to doubt the genuineness of this cylinder if it were not 








135 
that it appears from the accompanying label to have been in the possession of the 
Museum for about a century, and yet strangely enough it has never been published, 
not even by Lajard or Ménant. Forgeries are only of a comparatively late period. 

Yet one other of this general type may be cited in fig. 133. M. Heuzey does 
not mention in which collection it is, and I did not see it in the Louvre. The two 
dragons carry their heads to the ground; and, as figured by Heuzey, instead of having 
a forked tongue, a stream of three lines is vomited from their mouths. The god 
is on the front creature and lifts his bare leg, like Shamash, on the wing of the 
dragon. He carries a serpent rod. The nude goddess on the second dragon holds 
what appear to be thunderbolts in each hand. Between the two dragons is a stand- 
ing figure carrying a weapon which is a boomerang, or better a serpent rod. A 
short inscription finishes the design. 


THE WINGED DRAGON SUBDUED. 51 


In fig. 132 we have the god alone standing on a dragon, and holding the thunder- 
bolt in his hand. ‘The remaining design is discussed in Chapter xxvul. 

In these cases we have seen the fuller form of the myth represented, these cyl- 
inders being of the earlier period. But there is another class of cylinders of a some- 
what later period, which will be treated subsequently and in which the dragon be- 
comes a subordinate accessory of the goddess Ishtar. Such a case is fig. 134, where 
the goddess sits on the dragon. ‘This is probably a goddess, although she is in 
profile and holds the triple thunderbolt, which became the emblem of Adad. An- 
other case is seen in fig. 135, where the goddess, with her characteristic Babylonian 
caduceus, stands on two dragons, although usually she is represented as standing 
with one foot on a lion, often very much crouched; but for this, see designs in the 
chapter on Ishtar. We have a similar cylinder shown in fig. 135a, which we 
know only from its impression on a tablet of the Gudea period. Here, again, we 
have the flounced goddess standing on a dragon, while before her we see a wor- 
shiper and a crescent, and behind her another animal, perhaps a dragon, and three 
lines of filiary inscription. Occasionally the dragon appears unrelated to the other 








135b 
figures on the design, as in fig. 135+, where Gilgamesh is repeated, fighting a 
lion and a buffalo. The cylinder bears the inscription: “Urdumu, patesi of Ud- 
nunki” (Adab, modern Bismya)—Price. 

We now must raise the question, who are the deities represented in connection 
with the walking dragon? We best know the dragon from its relation to the story 
of Bel Marduk and Tiamat. We can hardly doubt that the later representations, 
from the Assyrian period of the fight between a god and a composite creature of 
this same type, represent the contest between Bel Marduk and Tiamat, even 
although in the most elaborate of these designs (fig. 564) the dragon 1s distinctly 
masculine. But these designs that we are considering are of a period anterior to 
the rise of Babylon and the supremacy of Marduk, the tutelar god of Babylon, in 
the pantheon. We must look to the older forms of the myth. In the earliest form 
of the story, as Mr. King has shown, it was Ea who was the champion of the gods. 
When the primacy passed from Eridu, or Erech, to Nippur its tutelar god Enlil 
became the hero demiurge that overthrew the dragon; and later the primacy 
passed, as we have said, to Marduk at Babylon, and to him was assigned the victory 
over the elements of chaos personified now in Tiamat, wife of Apsu, who was slain 
and her body divided to make the firmament of heaven. It is not clear that in the 
earlier form of the cosmogonic myth it was Tiamat who was the representative of 
chaos; it was more probably Apsu, the representative of the watery deep of chaos. 
As these designs on the cylinders are of a period long anterior to the supremacy of 
Babylon under Hammurabi, it is clear that the gods represented are not Marduk 


52 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


and Zirbanit, his wife, but that they have to do with the earlier deities of a differ- 
ent name but a similar réle, either the elder Enlil of Nippur and his wife Belit, 
who, however, is confused with both Ishtar and Zirbanit, or even Ea and his wife 
Damkina. The representations of the deities with their arms do not very well 
harmonize with the usual description of Ea and Damkina, but we may recall that 
Damkina was also identified or confused with Belit, and that it was the rise of 
Nippur and Babylon that consigned Ea back to the watery domain; and that orig- 
inally he was a fighting deity, the warrior of the gods. Some of these cylinders 
may go back to the time of the supremacy of Ea, and yet we must admit that, 
excluding Marduk as too late, the attributions better agree with those allowed to 
Enlil than those allowed to Ea. It is more likely to be Ea who rides on a sea monster 
in fig. 106, which may represent the earliest form of the myth. 

The dragon itself is very peculiar. He, or she, is not fighting or fleeing, but 
is evidently subdued. His whole attitude is that of an unwilling victim of superior 
might. The head hangs low and the tongue protrudes, unless he is represented 
as vomiting. M. Heuzey suggests (“Catalogue des Antiq. Chald.,” p. 404) that 
the dragon is belching flames. I am not certain that such is the case. The dragon 
is referred to in the texts as spitting poison (Bollenriicher, ““Gebete und Hymnen 
an Nergal,” p. 19); and on Gudea’s cylinder with his “tongue hanging out.” We 
seem to have here a version of the myth varying from that which has come down 
to us in the literary sources, one in which the dragon, male or female, Apsu or 
Tiamat, or Tiamat and Kingu, was not slain, but was subdued and driven in 
triumph. ‘The attitude of the dragon forbids us to suppose that the god is riding 
to conflict, before his victory. As to the question that arises in reference to the 
chariot in figs. 127, 128, and the animal which might draw a chariot at this early 
time, before the horse would appear to have been known in southern Babylonia, 
the reader is referred to figs. 108, 119. he Assyrian cylinders which show the 
conflict of Bel and the Dragon (Chapter xxxv1) show a smaller dragon as compan- 
ion, which might be thought of as Kingu. But these older cylinders give two of 
equal size, and one, indeed, fig. 1294, offers us six dragons, as if the god and goddess 
had conquered a host of enemies. It was a myth of later times in the East that 
dragons drew the chariot of the sun. (See “Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila,” 
“Anecdota Oxoniensia,” also M. R. James in London Guardian, March 15, 1899.) 

I have reserved the later Assyrian representations of the fight between Bel Mar- 
duk and the dragon for consideration in Chapter xxxvi. With the dragon as thus 
represented in the earliest and the later times, should also be compared the figures 
of a dragon fighting and apparently conquering a man, as seen in Chapter xXxIx. 

For the earlier discussions of this design the reader is referred to Proc. Am. Or. 
Soc., 1889; Am. Journal of Archeology, 1890, p. 291; 1b1d., 1898, p. 160; Hebraica, 
xiv, 2; Am. Journal Semitic Studies, January, 1898. 

It may be noted that in the study of the dragon we must not be confused by 
the Omoroka of the Greek writers. Prof. J. H. Wright has shown in Zeitsch. fiir 
Assyr., X, pp. 71-74, that O0MOPOKA is simply ‘0 MOP4OKA, t.e., Marduk. 

In Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, October, 1904, p. 133, [hureau-Dangin says 


that Lakhamu is an early name for the dragon. 


CHAPTER IX. 


THE GOD ATTACKING AN ENEMY. 


We shall have occasion to study in Chapter xxi the design which shows 
us a god attacking a goddess under a bent tree, and which must be interpreted as 
probably representing Nergal conquering and then wedding Allatu, goddess of the 
underground cave in which dwell the spirits of the dead. We have to consider 
another design which, although not frequent, is yet less rare, and which shows us 
a similar god attacking a male enemy. Such a scene is shown us in fig. 136. We 
shall consider this cylinder in the chapter on Agricultural Deities (fig. 382), and 
it must here be examined for its second design. A god in a high headdress, holding 
a long-handled war-club, or mace, in 
one hand, seizes with his other hand 
the head of an enemy prostrate against 
a mountain, and steps on his body. 
The conquered enemy appears to be 
nude, except for the headdress. It is 
not positive from this design that the 
enemy is a god, inasmuch as on the 
cylinders of this early period men are 
represented as also wearing this kind of turban, and, indeed, the dress of the deities 
had to be copied from the dress of men and women of high rank. In this very 
cylinder we see the worshiper who is led to the seated goddess with such a turban. 

The de Clercq collection is rich in cylinders of this design. One of these is 
shown in fig. 136a. Here we have three scenes depicted in which probably the 
same god attacks the same victim. In the first scene, to the right, the god, in a 
short garment, seizes by the head and arm his naked enemy who is armed with a 
war-club. In the next scene the enemy has dropped his club and is pushed forward 









SSS—S'9 
A 
f 
A 
US! 


ie 


! 


2 Wim fy lbs 


i, 











= 








= 
in an attitude of submission. In the last scene the god, now illumined with rays, 
representing that he is a Sun-god, crowds his victim against a mountain. 

A similar conflict is shown in fig. 136). Here are two scenes. In one of them 
the god attacks with an ax, or hammer, his conquered foe, and in the other the foe 
is pushed against the mountain. In this second scene the god, with rays, is dupli- 


cated simply for the sake of symmetry. If the drawing, copied from Ohnefalsch- 
53 


o4 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Richter, is correct, we have here one distinct feature not elsewhere clear, if I remem- 
ber, in that the god wears a breechcloth attached to his girdle. 

Yet another is shown in fig. 136c. Here we have but a single scene with a 
worshiper bearing a goat for offering. ‘This case differs from the others in that 
the god has on a long garment, of the style worn by the standing Shamash, and 
his whole body is encompassed with forking rays, a feature not elsewhere duplicated. 
He seizes his foe by the beard and the arm and pushes him against the mountain. 
‘The seizing by the beard gives 


CE A a TE I ne a ee 
a peculiar look to the victim’s & Db) Wy le = 
head, and some of these fig- ‘ Bl We se 












AN 
Le) 





e 136d 
ures were at first supposed to be bird-headed. Exactly what is the meaning of the 
kneeling figure behind the mountains is not clear. Possibly he seizes the victim 
by the long hair. 

There are two scenes in fig. 136d, only one of which belongs to our subject. 
This is a worn and broken cylinder. The god, with rays from his body, pushes 
his foe against the mountain. ‘The other scene gives us a seated, flounced goddess 
and a short-skirted worshiper with a goat conducted to her by another flounced 


figure, probably feminine. 





1376 
It seems to be certainly the standing Shamash in his long garment and with 


his foot on a mountain, whom we see in fig. 137, for it is precisely his attitude and 
attributes, the same dress, position, and notched sword. In this case, however, 
the god is not in conflict with his foe, who is already in submission, kneeling before 
the mountain and with his head turned back so that his beard stands out hori- 
zontally as in fig. 136c. ‘The remainder of this design shows us two worshipers, 
the second with a goat. 


THE GOD ATTACKING AN ENEMY. 55 


In fig. 137a we again have two scenes. Here the god, bearing the war-club, 
wears the short skirt and in one scene forces the enemy on his knees and in the 
other pushes him against the mountain. 

Another cylinder of peculiar interest is seen in fig. 137). Here we seem to see 
the god in three several conflicts. In one the god, in his usual short garment, seizes 
his enemy by the beard. The enemy holds in his hand 
a weapon such as Heuzey calls a boomerang. Between 
the two is a small figure of a worshiper with hand lifted 
high, facing the god. In the second scene the god with 
a poniard stabs a monster with the upper body of a 
man and the lower body of a bull, like Eabani, with 
whom Gilgamesh occasionally engaged in fight. The 
third scene is very remarkable and unusual. Here the 
god, with a weapon or whip in his hand, rides on a bull and tramples on a sub- 
dued foe who lifts his hand in supplication. It is clear that we have here a feature 
from the time when the horse was unknown, or not used for war purposes. 

In fig. 137¢ we have a simpler variation of the design, where it is passing into 
its later conventional form of the Middle Empire. The short-skirted god raises 
his hand to smite his already conquered and deprecating foe, and steps on his leg. 
In the later period the foe is generally of a smaller size than the god. These will 
be seen in Chapter xxvii. 













Y] 
SRA 
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AZ| ITTS 

MING 
Hl 
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Wy 
Ww 
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138b 
In fig. 138 we have again three scenes. I have not seen this cylinder and I 
suspect some errors in the drawing of it, as it appears to be considerably worn, 
judging from the disappearance of the head of the mace in two instances and the 
imperfect condition of the victim’s head where he is seized by the beard. Probably 

it is the same god in each of the scenes who attacks the same single foe. 
A very archaic cylinder with what may be a partly parallel design to that 
which we are considering is seen in fig. 138a, although it may be a case of ordinary 
fight between soldiers. One scene gives a seated deity receiving a worshiper. A 


56 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


personage with a long-pointed beard and wearing a feather headdress, with one 
hand on the head of a smaller figure and with the other holding what may be a 
shield or a rude club, is attacked with a dagger by a nude combatant. This cylinder 
appears to belong to the very oldest period of Chaldean art. 

A triple scene is shown in fig. 138). The figures are all nude, except for the 
girdle and perhaps a short garment worn by the victorious god, who, in one of the 
scenes, seizes his foe by the beard and pushes his head backward, stabbing him 
with a poniard. The space where we might expect a mountain is taken up by the 
inscription. A cylinder better preserved is seen in fig. 138c. Here we have two 
distinct scenes. In one a worshiper stands before the Sun-god Shamash. The god 





138¢ 
has his foot lifted on a mountain and holds in one hand his usual notched weapon, 
and in the other a war-club, which second weapon is unusual. Behind him is an 
altar with two flames. ‘The other scene, which here concerns us, shows the god, 
duplicated for symmetry, clothed in a long garment such as Shamash wears, evi- 
dently of sheep skin, attacking his kneeling victim, while a vulture is ready to 
pounce on the slain body. There is a gazelle in the field before the god. 

We see a triple scene in fig. 138d. In the first scene, to the left, the god attacks 
with a club his enemy who crouches with bent knees and whose club is bent as if 
broken. This may suggest that in some other case what looks like a boomerang 
may be a broken club. In the next scene the enemy, turned as if to flee, but with 





his two hands and his face turned in supplication to the god, is seized by the 
god. In the third scene the enemy is on his knee, and the god with a club seizes 
him by the headdress. In fig. 139 we have a single scene of the conflict, the god 
with his foot on the enemy who has sunk to the ground. On one side the god appears 
again with his club, while before him is a club and a beast with a long erect tail, 
such as later accompanies Marduk, which seems to accompany and aid the god; 
and on the other side is a figure with hands extended, perhaps in worship, although 
it appears as if the prostrate victim were appealing to him. A simpler case is also 
fig. 139a, where the god with a club seizes his enemy by the arm. It is curious that 
a serpent should stand each side of the god. A second design shows the goddess 
Bau with a worshiper, as seen in Chapter XII. 


THE GOD ATTACKING AN ENEMY. 57 


The design shown in fig. 139a connects itself closely with those in Chapter xu, 
with the seated goddess. In fig. 139) the god with his usual club pushes his enemy 
backward and puts his foot on him. A second scene shows us, as in fig. 137), a 
monster like Eabani attacked by a god with rays from his body. ‘There is also a 
crescent over the sign for Shamash. Like it, in part, is another archaic cylinder (fig. 
139c), where a god, holding up a square object in one hand, steps on the foe whom 









v 


(y 

l] 

= 
a4 x 





Se ea a age aT ETS 140 
he has pushed backward. Another scene shows a prisoner with his hands tied 
behind his back, who is threatened behind by a figure with an ax, while another 
before him shoots him with an arrow. Between them is a bison on a mountain 
together with a short inscription. 

There are now several cylinders to be considered of whose genuineness | 
confess I am not convinced, but which have passed as genuine into the cabinets 
and some of them have been published. Let it be premised that forgeries are often 
very skilfully made, and it is all the more difficult to detect them, when so made, 
from the fact that genuine cylinders, badly worn, have been taken and recut, fol- 
lowing in good part the original lines, but deepening them and adding false features. 








(jy I 


ay 
Xe VE 4 ] | L 
Sasi GA OS 
140a 1405 
In the case of the older cylinders, long in museums, we have little to fear; the in- 
dustry has arisen, so as to be dangerous and sometimes deceive experts, only within 
the last twenty years, owing to an increased competition to secure these objects, 
and travelers and even dealers in antiquities are easily deceived. One of these, 
for which I would not venture to vouch, is seen in fig. 140. I find it difficult to 
believe that the rays about the body of the god and his victim, enveloping even the 
legs, are genuine. Unfortunately, the cylinder came into the possession of the 





58 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Berlin Museum from a source not above suspicion. Another such is shown in fig. 
140a, with its superabundant rays, and where we see even the flounced goddess 
carrying a war-club. The same doubt attaches to several other cylinders published 
in connection with it and apparently obtained from the same source. But if the 
superabundant rays about the legs of the god are suspicious, we must equally 
suspect Berlin VA 686, and for other reasons perhaps VA 560, with its crowded 
inscription. 

It has been customary to interpret these cylinders as depicting a human sacri- 
fice. I can not so understand them. It is clear to me, not only from the headdress 
of the attacking figure, but also from the rays that sometimes surround him, that 
he is a god. Indeed, when the design was conventionalized at a later period, and 
we see in Chapter xxvitt the foot of the god resting on the body of the diminutive vic- 
tim, there can be no doubt what is meant. I can not therefore agree with Ménant, 
Sayce, and a number of other scholars, 
but must interpret this as representing 
the victory of some Sun-god over an 
enemy on the mountains. This enemy 
seems to be the cloud or mist that 
covers the mountains in the morning 
and is driven away as the sun rises 
above them. I then identify the god 
with Nergal and not with Shamash. 
Nergal was not only a secondary god 
of the lower world, Allatu being its 
primary deity, but was especially the 
god of the noonday summer heat. As 
such he was regarded as a terrible 
warrior and destroyer, and it is suitable that he should be represented as on the 
one hand capturing Allatu in the cave of the underworld, and on the other as 
fighting the cloud giants that obscure the mountains. In fig. 140) the god with 
rays holds out his mace toward his kneeling foe, or suppliant god, whose own mace 
has perhaps dropt from his hand. The figures look much like Nergal and Allatu, 
but the standing figure seems to be bearded. Another scene shows the bifrons 
before the seated god Shamash with streams. It is very surprising to see the bifrons 
not leading in any worshiper with a goat for offering. We seem to have a relief 
which gives us the figure of this god in fig. 140c, or of a similar Elamite god. This 
drawing is taken from a squeeze of the rock, and looks somewhat untrue. ‘The god 
has his foot on his enemy, but he carries the scimitar of Marduk, although he has 
not Marduk’s long garment. 

Shamash and Nergal were both Sun-gods and might easily have been confused; 
and, indeed, either might engage in the same scene. We need not then be surprised 
to find the god attacking an enemy, usually wearing the short garment which 
properly belongs to Nergal, but sometimes wearing the long garment of Shamash. 
Of course, the latter god also drives away the mists and clouds of sunrise. 
















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Kes " A | | 


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ArmA A 
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140¢ 


CHAPTER X. 


GILGAMESH, EABANI, AND THE DIVINE BULL. 


Among the very earliest designs found on the cylinders of Chaldea, of a period 
perhaps 4000 B. C., are those which represent the hero or demigod Gilgamesh and 
the half-man, half-bull, Eabani, fighting wild beasts. At least this is the interpreta- 
tion given to these figures ever since George Smith first made the identification in 
his “Chaldean Genesis.’ These two figures we have already seen in figs. 111, 120, 
121, 123, where we have met them with others in the discussion of the archaic 
cylinders. It is not necessary for us to follow George Smith in supposing that 
Gilgamesh is the Nimrod of the Bible, although this is quite possible and both 
Nimrod and Gilgamesh were “mighty hunters.” 

Gilgamesh is frequently represented en face, though by no means always so; 
and the same is true of Eabani. Both forms appear simultaneously, of the most 
archaic type, as we have seen, so that we can not differentiate the forms as from 
separate regions or races. , 





Following the examples shown in Chapter vu, another very archaic example 
occurs in a shell cylinder (fig. 141) of perhaps 4000 B. C., of the type of the figures 
of Eannadu, King of Lagash. Gilgamesh appears absolutely nude, not even with 
the girdle cord which is usual in the fine cylinders of about the time of Sargon I. 
He has two curls each side of his head, instead of the later three, and attacks a stag 
rampant with branching horns, another feature unusual in the next period ‘The 
stag is attacked from behind by another naked man in profile, who stabs it with a 
dirk. Two bulls (bisons), back to back, one with head in front view and the other 
in profile, are attacked each by a man in profile, with long hair falling behind, 
clad only in a short skirt consisting of two flounces. There is a line of inscription 
in very archaic characters. The bird-like heads of the profile men indicate their 
extreme antiquity. This cylinder shows that at this very early period the artist 
was able to draw both the human head and the head of the bull either front view 
or in profile; and so far it negatives the supposition that the front view indicates 
one local origin of deities thus represented and the profile another. I am inclined 
to think that this front-face bull is the origin of a figure frequent in later representa- 
tions, called by Smith and his followers the divine bull sent by Ishtar to punish 
Gilgamesh for rejecting her advances. Yet it may be that here the divine bull was 

59 


60 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


intended. In this very early seal we also observe the requirement of symmetry in 
the arrangement of figures. We are not to suppose that all these figures represent 
different mythological beings. Very likely the two nude figures attacking the stag 
may both represent Gilgamesh, and the two other clothed figures may represent 
a single personage, and that one possibly also Gilgamesh. Apparently it was the 
same Gilgamesh and Eabani that we saw in fig. 111, and there it was Gilgamesh 
that wore the skirt. 








KS GE 94 Se e ~~), es, 
Yi a 4 
Sit 


Another cylinder of lapis-lazuli, of not much later date if we can judge from 
its art, belongs to the Metropolitan Museum (fig. 141a). It represents a nude 
Gilgamesh attacking a rampant lion from behind. In one hand he holds what 
may be a bow or a shield, while with the other he stabs the lion in the neck with a 
dirk. Another nude profile hero attacks two rampant animals, one a stag and the 
other an oryx, or ibex, the latter also attacked by a lion. The hero in profile has 
the bird-like face made up mostly of an eye, characteristic of the archaic art, which 
also appears in the two curls of Gilgamesh, the peculiar drawing of his hair, and 
in the straight lines with which the lion’s mane is drawn. ‘There are two lines of 

archaic inscription. ‘The inscription is not easy to 
read, but seems to contain the name of a king of 
Erech me seemio 4297) 

; Of a similar style and of the same primitive 
period are figs. 1415, 141d, 142, all of lapis-lazuli 
and all belonging to the rich collection of M. de 
Clercq, a large portion of which he obtained directly 
from his agent in Baghdad. No. 141), which bears 
the name of an early patesi, shows the more usual 
three curls each side of Gilgamesh’s head and the 
broad face both of the hero and of the lions, as also 
of the two smaller mythological creatures; and we 

have the straight, scraggly mane of the lions. We have here an early form of 

the human-headed bull, which very possibly had its origin in a badly drawn 
bull’s head of an earlier period. Various considerations suggest that the develop- 
ment as well as the persistence of myths depends much on representations in art. 

What looks like a human-headed scorpion standing on the human-headed bull is 

said by Heuzey (“Les Armoires Chaldéennes de Sipourla,” p. 14) to be really 

meant for a human-headed eagle. This is not fully clear, as we would expect 
rather the lion’s head, as in the emblem of Lagash on the vase of Entemena 

(fig. 56) and on the cylinders shown in that chapter. The human-headed scorpion 

is familiar on the later seals, and we have already seen the human-headed serpent, 





GILGAMESH, EABANI, AND THE DIVINE BULL. 61 


very possibly as Apsu or the man-fish Oannes, in figs. 102-109. To prove that 
this is rather an eagle than a scorpion M. Heuzey compares a design on a bit of 
shell of an archaic period (fig. 141c), where such an “eagle” with distinct feathers 
is in the same position on a human-headed bull. 

Br Se 


i, 


SW, i 


In figs. 141d, 142, from the de Clercq collec- Ge % ISA SEY 
tion, both also of lapis-lazuli, we have two other J Afi efass 
cylinders of the primitive period, as appears in the Y, Zz Id aes 
general drawing, and especially in the great eyes ALR (, fy \, ad 
and feathered heads of the figures seen in profile. 142 
Another well-preserved cylinder of an extreme archaic character is from the valu- 
able collection of Lord Southesk; it is of pink marble. This cylinder (fig. 143) gives 
us two lions symmetrically crossed and attacking a bull and a deer, while the bull 
is attacked by Gilgamesh in front view. There is a smaller lion crossed with a bull 


under a very archaic inscription which reads ‘“‘Lugal zidaku,” “ King faithful,” or 
“King legitimate.” 


SES IGA, 


Another fine cylinder, which may be of a slightly later date, is seen in fig. 144. 
The inscription is more developed and the heads of the heroes and animals are less 
exaggerated, but the eagle of Lagash, later dropt and forgotten, is here retained, 
although in a reduced form. ‘The large aragonite cylinder shown in fig. 145 appears 
to be of extreme antiquity if we can judge from the inscription. ‘The hero with 
face in profile, whom we may call Gilgamesh, in one case lifts the reversed lions 
and again attacks bulls with a javelin or spear. Another archaic cylinder of marble 
is shown in fig. 146, where a nude profile Gilgamesh attacks an ibex, while another 








ibex is attacked by Eabani, who, in turn, is attacked by a lion. Very archaic is the 
feathered hat worn by Gilgamesh, from which depends a long tassel to the ground. 
An interesting and early shell cylinder is shown in fig. 147, in which the hero appears 
to carry a shield (or a boomerang); and we particularly observe the two stars sur- 
mounting a vertical line, which seem to be the precursors of a later form which may 
stand for the Sun-god. Quite as old appears to be the lapis-lazuli cylinder shown 
in fig. 149. 


62 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


In fig. 148 we have a portion of a large marble cylinder of great antiquity, 
notable for the peculiar and distinctive headdress worn by the hero, who attacks 


a human-headed bull. One should observe the weapon in the field of fig. 150, in 











WHE OS 
RT E22 LK ou 
Ie Ge~“Rs 


V7 jaya 
Oy: 


: | S 
jal Wine 


which we have an early representation of both Gilgamesh and Eabani. The same 
weapon, if such it is and not a hieroglyphic character, 1s seen in fig. 151. It has a 
lance-head point, with a short shaft and a crescent handle. (See fig. 191.) In fig. 
152 we see the same weapon in the hand of 
the hero, while it is also figured in the field. 
Another interesting example of this period 
we see in fig. 151, in which a lion attacking 
a deer is in turn attacked by two heroes (or 
rather one duplicated) and a bull is attacked 
by another hero. A lizard, or crocodile, 
extends its length in the field. A peculiar 
cylinder of this period is seen in fig. 153, where a lion jumps on the back of a bull. 
In fig. 155, representing a wooded country, we have a club in the field, and we 
observe, as in some other cases of the oldest seals, the long queue of Eabani. 








The cylinders above described and figured give us representations of Gilgamesh 
and Eabani of a period which appears to be hardly later than those of what we 
called the archaic types of Chapter vu. They present us with the earlier forms 
of the mythological personages whom we identify, following George Smith, with 
Gilgamesh and Eabani. Gilgamesh appears from the first drawn either in profile 


GILGAMESH, EABANI, AND THE DIVINE BULL. 63 


or en face, although the latter type became predominant later. The animals with 
whom Gilgamesh and Eabani are in conflict are the lion, the bull (or rather bison), 
the deer, the oryx or ibex, and occasionally the leopard. It is to be remembered that 
in the earlier period the buffalo of the swamp district of lower Babylonia does not 
appear. Eabani wears the horns of the bison and not of the buffalo, and we have 
the human-headed bull with bull’s horns. This seems to show that the art and 
its mythology had their origin not in southern Babylonia, but probably in Elam. 
Later, in the time of Sargon, the buffalo often takes the place of the bison, as a more 
dangerous animal and an even greater prize for the hunter, or, perhaps, as the only 
one known in the river country. The bull-bison is the Bison bonasus and the water- 
buffalo is Bos bubalus. ‘They are described in Chapter xx on the zoology of the 
cylinders. The buffalo is the strongest beast of burden after the elephant, black 
and hairless, and doubtless was indigenous in the swamps of Babylonia, as also in 
all southern Asia. It is still wild in India and Formosa. The Bison bonasus is 
still wild in the Caucasus and is preserved in Lithuania. 


TY 
BP 


154 

Gilgamesh is said to have been a king of Erech, and a wall of Erech was attrib- 
uted to him. It is quite possible that he was an actual ruler afterwards deified. 
He was a mighty warrior, and the goddess Aruru created the half-man, half-bull 
Eabani to resist and overcome him. The seals sometimes represent them in conflict. 
Eabani was clothed with hair, and ate and drank with the beasts of the field. Gilga- 
mesh, “the huntsman,” failed to capture Eabani, until one of the courtesans of the 
temple of Ishtar enticed him to live with men, and become the ally instead of the 
enemy of Gilgamesh. Together they fought against the tyrant Khumbaba, who 
lived in the forests of Elam, an apparent indication that they represent a Semitic 
race and myth, although Genesis 10: 23 makes Elam the eldest son of Shem. But 
very little confidence can be placed in this conclusion, inasmuch as the form in 
which we have the epic of Gilgamesh is of a comparatively late recension, and the 
earlier Sumerian version may have undergone various changes—just as the myth 
of the fight of Marduk and Tiamat is a modification, belonging to the time of 
Hammurabi, of a story which first represented the conflict as between Ea and Apsu, 
and next of Enlil and Tiamat. After the victory of the allied heroes over Khumbaba, 
Gilgamesh rejected the proposal of Ishtar that he be her husband, and in revenge 
for his scorn Ishtar persuaded her father Anu to fashion a monstrous bull to ravage 
his country; but with the help of Eabani the beast was slain. In anger Ishtar 
cursed both the heroes with sickness, of which Eabani died, while Gilgamesh 
undertakes a long and perilous journey to Adrahasis, the Chaldean Noah, who 
had achieved immortality, in search of the same boon. Adrahasis, or Xisuthros, 
tells Gilgamesh the story of the deluge and how he achieved immortality, and he 


=| 











64 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


informs his visitor how he can gain the same blessing. He is first cured of his 
disease by bathing in the healing waters; but when, after a long journey, he had 
found and plucked the plant which gives immortality, it was stolen from him by 
a serpent. 

While there can be little doubt that George Smith was right when, in his “Chal- 
dean Genesis,”’ he found Gilgamesh, Eabani, and the monstrous bull figured on 
the olden seals, it may be a question whether the monstrous bull belonged to the 
earlier form of the myth. He may have had his origin, as above suggested, in the 
rude drawing of the bull with which the huntsman contended, the head in front 
view and with such a semi-human face as the unskilled artist could not avoid making. 





For the time of Sargon [., who ruled at Agade, the modern mound of Anbar 
(Ward, “Sippara,”’ Hebraica, January, 1886), we can find the type of Gilgamesh, 
as his features were finally developed, by the magnificent cylinder (fig. 156) in the 
de Clercq collection, of which it is the prime treasure, as it is of all the monuments 
of the early Babylonian art. To be sure, it may be questioned whether this certainly 
represents Gilgamesh, and this subject will come under discussion when we con- 
sider the spouting vase (Chapter xxxvil); nevertheless the drawing is precisely that 
of the hero as he appears on other seals. Here he is on his knees and holds a vase 





from which issue two streams that provide drink for a buffalo. The whole cylinder 
is magnificently cut in a hard siliceous stone and is a piece of art worthy of an early 
Greek period. It suggests what might have been the development of Chaldean 
art if it had not fallen under the deadening influence of utter conventionalism, 
which began with exaggerated bilateral symmetry and ended with mechanical 
figures of gods which never changed. Here we have the face in front view, which 
became the standard type, and the three curls and the full curled beard, such as is 
repeated over and over again to the time of the later Assyrian kings. 

This cylinder is of prime importance not solely for its art, but because it fixes 
the time of the culmination of the art of gem engraving at the period of Sargon L., 


GILGAMESH, EABANI, AND THE DIVINE BULL. 65 


which was, according to the calculation of Nabonidus, about 3750 B. C., although 
we may have to reduce by five or ten centuries the chronology accepted by the last 
of the Babylonian kings. But this is not the only evidence we have that this was 
the flourishing period of glyptic art. On a tablet belonging to the Louvre is the 
impression of another fine royal cylinder which also bears the name of Sargon I. 
(fig. 157), for the knowledge of which we are indebted to M. Heuzey. Here we 
have the hero Gilgamesh himself, in his favorite occupation or sport, grasping a 
bull or lion by the head and breaking its back over his knee. The type of the hero 
and the vigor of the art are maintained in the time of Sargon’s son Naram-Sin, 
as appears from the impression of a cylinder on another tablet, also published 
by Heuzey (fig. 158), in which Gilgamesh seizes the rampant lion by the fore legs 
(see also figs. 48, 49). 

A choice example of this type is seen in fig. 159, taken from one of the chief 
treasures of the collection in the British Museum, of red and white jasper, in 
which the hero is lifting the lion on his shoulder. It was certainly an artist of the 
first rank who designed and engraved this seal. We here have Gilgamesh in his 









rail 


hic : Mihi 


distinctive representation, with head in front view, the hair parted in the middle, 
the beard long and curled at the ends, the body naked with only a narrow girdle 
about the waist, from which an end hangs down by his side, and not even having 
on a breechcloth. In the case of no other god except Gilgamesh is the phallus 
drawn; for the early Chaldean art was usually most modest, as were the Assyrian 
and Persian—in contrast, as Greek authors observed, with the freedom of personal 
exposure among the Greeks. The story of Noah’s drunkenness in his tent illustrates 
what was the similar feeling among the ancient Hebrews. Where in a number of 
passages in the Hebrew Scriptures, as I Samuel 25: 22, general slaughter is threat- 
ened, including every one “mingentem ad partetem,” the coarse expression does 
not refer to all males, but to the humblest unclad slaves unencumbered by long 
garments. And equally in a Babylonian sacrificial scene, if we see a naked figure 
it is always that of a slave. It is, however, true that one of the Babylonian goddesses 
who typifies fertility is represented as nude. 

When represented apart from his companion Eabani, on the cylinders of the 
centuries following the time of Sargon, Gilgamesh fights a lion, or swings one over 
his head, or rides on its back, but perhaps more frequently fights a water-buffalo 
with long rugose horns that lie down on its neck, or occasionally he fights a bison, 

5 


66 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


as on the earlier cylinders. We have now passed the period when the bison of 
Elam was the familiar animal, and the Chaldean artists now affect the buffalo of 
their own region. When associated, however, with Eabani, the latter fights the 
lion, while Gilgamesh fights the buffalo or bison, as if its conquest were the greater 
feat. Eabani always retains the horns of the bison, which he wears in the more 





165 T60 al 


archaic cylinders, and never has those of the buffalo. Equally the human-headed 
bull has always the horns of the bison and never of the buffalo. Thus the memory 
seems to be preserved that the origin of these forms, as of Gilgamesh also, was not 
in the low swamps of Babylon, but in a land of hills and forests. 
Both Gilgamesh and Eabani continue to be represented with the face in profile 
as well as in front view, although later the front view becomes predominant and 
finally exclusive. There can be no doubt that the two forms represent the same, 
a single Gilgamesh and a single Eabani, for they appear in precisely the same 
attitudes and combinations; and it is therefore useless to try to distinguish them 


GILGAMESH, EABANI, AND THE DIVINE BULL. 67 


in any way. While neither convention was fixed, different artists indulged their 
own preference, or took the form more familiar in their own town. We must there- 
fore consider them together. 

An example of Gilgamesh alone is shown in fig. 160, where, beside the two 
symmetrical figures of Gilgamesh mounting on a lion’s back, a third Gilgamesh is 
seen between the two lions grasping each by a paw. It was past the skill of the 
artist to represent the legs of the third Gilgamesh in symmetrical position. Very 
much like it is fig. 161, where again Gilgamesh appears once on the back of a lion 
and once on the back of a buffalo. Another is seen in fig. 162, where we have also 
a graphic suggestion of the swamp reeds which were the haunt of the lion. In fig. 
163 we have Gilgamesh in his waist-cord, fighting buffaloes, but a bull is tethered 
near by, an evidence of the early period at which it was domesticated. In fig. 164 
Gilgamesh lays his foot on the neck of the reversed lion. In fig. 165 Gilgamesh 


lifts a lion quite over his head. But here the hero is more clothed, in accordance 





with later conventionality, and the material, a bluish chalcedony, suggests also a 
later period. In fig. 166 Gilgamesh actually rides on the back of the lion. We have 
another example of Gilgamesh fighting a buffalo in fig. 167, a finely cut red jasper 
cylinder.* 

Among the cylinders which show us Gilgamesh alone with his face in profile, 
fighting wild beasts, is one of the somewhat unusual material, syenite (fig. 169), 
in which we see the hero standing between an ibex and a bull, each of which is 
attacked by a lion. One recalls the feat of David, who killed a lion attacking a 
sheep, and at another time a bear. In this seal a second clothed figure appears 
carrying a branch. On another cylinder (fig. 168) Gilgamesh is repeated, once 
fighting a lion and once a bull. Gilgamesh is also repeated in fig. 170, fighting 





* This cylinder I have retained in my own possession, from among those collected by me and which have been acquired 
by the Metropolitan Museum and Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. It was obtained many years ago from a French consul in the East 
by the famous French Orientalist, de Saulcy, and was presented by him to M. J. Ménant on his birthday when the latter was a 
young man. It was thus the beginning of M. Ménant’s invaluable work in gathering and studying the cylinders. On his death 
I obtained the cylinder from Mme. Ménant. See Ménant, “ Pierres Gravées,” 1, p. 77. 


68 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


once what seems to be a sort of wild goat, and once an ibex attacked by a lion. 
In the field we observe the club or mace. In fig. 171 two crossed bulls are attacked 
on each side by a lion, while the profile Gilgamesh, in a short garment, attacks 
one of the lions. There is a branching tree between Gilgamesh and the lion; also 
the heraldic eagle over a small worshiper. In fig. 172 Gilgamesh appears with two 
bulls. In fig. 175, a very archaic shell cylinder, Gilgamesh attacks a lion, which 





in turn attacks a bull whose body crosses that of a lion attacking a second bull. 
In this case the crossed animals do not show the complete symmetry. In most 
cases the two crossed lions attack two bulls. In fig. 174 Gilgamesh is repeated, 
attacking an ibex and a lion. Occasionally Gilgamesh is repeated in a grotesque 
position, as in fig. 173. The club will be observed. ‘The small figure with streams 
will be considered in the next chapter. 









SAE 
VO (S 


a 
Ti 
ZL = 


Gilgamesh and Eabani are very frequently represented together, whether in 
front view or in profile. A case in which both are in profile is seen in fig. 176, where, 
as usual, Gilgamesh attacks the buffalo and Eabani the lion. This cylinder is notice- 
able for the pains which the artist has taken to fill all the blank spaces, giving the 
short effaced inscription its regular position below the horns of the buffaloes. 
There are also an ibex, an oryx, and a cypress tree. 

One of the two companions may be in front view and the other in profile, as 
in fig. 177, where it is Eabani that is in profile. Here the cypress is represented as 
growing on a mountain. This by no means indicates that the buffalo with which 





GILGAMESH, EABANI, AND THE DIVINE BULL. 69 


Gilgamesh fights is a beast of the mountains, but it preserves a convention. Both 
Gilgamesh and Eabani are in front view in fig. 178, fighting the bull and lion, and 
the spaces between them are filled with the eagle of Lagash (with eagle-head), a 
scorpion, and an upright serpent. This serpent is more frequently seen in the later 
seals. In fig. 179 we find a cylinder of a much earlier period, in which the unusual 
leopard will represent a closer relation to the Sumerian and Elamite mountain 





origin. Here the entire cutting is of an archaic type. Gilgamesh stands between 
two bisons, one of which is attacked by a lion and the other by a leopard, while 
Eabani attacks one of the lions from behind. 

Several examples may be given of the better period, about that of the Elder 
Sargon, on which we have representations of both Gilgamesh and Eabani in their 
characteristic attitudes. One of these, giving the simplest combination, is seen in 





fig. 180; another is seen in fig. 183, where we have, under the archaic inscription, 
of the Sargon type, an ibex. This inscription reads, “ Bingani-Sharali, son of the 
king, Izilum, scribe, thy servant.’’ Bingani-Sharali was king of Agade and son 
of Naram-Sin, and it is remarkable that General di Cesnola obtained this cylinder 
from Cyprus. Another similar cylinder, also from Cyprus, is shown in fig. 181. The 
reeds are to be compared with those in fig. 162. (Thureau-Dangin, Rey. d’Ass., 
Iv, p. 76.) Another larger, admirably engraved cylinder has a recumbent ibex 
under the erased inscription, as will be seen in fig. 182. This is of green serpentine. 


70 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


A cylinder of the frequent black serpentine (fig. 184) gives the ibex with the usual 
design. Once more we have in fig. 185 Eabani duplicated, fighting a lion, and in 
the field, under the erased inscription, a bird and also a small lion over the eagle of 





eo" 
VT} 
il 

| 


ff 
wal (_ ; _e 
IAN LW Wey 
Sip yf A I) Hl if ) : 
184 


Lagash. Fig. 186 gives us, besides the usual Eabani fighting the lion, one unusual 
figure of Gilgamesh in a short garment and wearing shoes tipped up at the toes, 
as in the Hittite manner. The pose of the bull is also unusual, as observed by 






CJ Yarn 





Ménant, “ Pierres Gravées,” 1, p.go. These same tipped-up boots should have been 
drawn in fig. 187, where Gilgamesh appears repeated fighting buffaloes, one of 
which is drawn in a less upright position than is usual while the other appears to 
be urinating. 


GILGAMESH, EABANI, AND THE DIVINE BULL. 71 


Very rarely we find Gilgamesh alone, or Gilgamesh and Eabani together, 
fighting the winged dragon. An indubitable case of this is seen in fig. 563, taken from 
the impression of a cylinder on a tablet of the period of Gudea. We have the same 
in figs. 187a and 187). As no cylinder had ever been published in which this scene 
is figured, I was, when I first saw one, inclined to suspect it to be an excellent forgery, 
but the impression on the tablet in my possession (fig. 563) is conclusive, and now 
two or three cylinders are known with this design. The conclusion is that Gil- 
gamesh and Eabani were conceived as overcoming not only the wild beasts, but 
also the mythologic monsters which caused terror to mortals, such as we see in 
Chapter xxix. The inscription on this cylinder reads: “ Lugula-ilu-mu, servant of 
Ludugga.”—Price. 

Eabani, the companion of Gilgamesh, the mightier satyr of Babylonian my- 
thology, half man and half bull, follows the artistic conventions of his superior. 
His head, shoulders, and arms are human, except that he carries a pair of bison’s— 
not buffalo’s—horns, and, when in profile and occasionally in front view, the ears 
of a bull; and the rest of his body is that of a bull. We may therefore fairly gather 


that the conception of Eabani had its rise not in the hot river valley, where the 





buffalo was the mightier and mor 
highlands. ‘The body of the bull, or bison, is hairy, unlike that of the buffalo, but 
like that of the American bison, and the sex is very strongly indicated. From the 
very earliest period Eabani may be drawn in profile, and either Gilgamesh or 
Eabani may also have the face in profile, while his companion may, on the same 
cylinder, be in front view. 

With Gilgamesh and Eabani must be mentioned the divine bull sent to avenge 
the insult of Gilgamesh to the love of Ishtar. He differs from Eabani especially 
in being more animal than human. Only his face, always in front view, is human, 
though with horns, while instead of having arms, like Eabani, with which he can 
fight, he has the bull’s fore legs. He is always attacked by Gilgamesh, and never by 
Eabani. By a peculiar convention the head of the divine bull is drawn on one side 
of the body, so as to conceal his neck, almost as if dissevered from it and always 
in front view. ‘There is, perhaps, no good reason to doubt that this figure is meant 
to represent the bull sent by Eabani at the request of Ishtar to punish Gilgamesh, 
but some early representations of Eabani seem to suggest that he may have been 
differentiated from an early form of Eabani and, as already suggested, the divine 
bull may in its origin have been merely a misdrawn bull, afterwards supposed to 
have a human face. Once, in the fine and very archaic cylinder (fig. 1415) in the 
de Clercq collection (plate v, fig. 41), the divine bull appears standing on his four 
feet, accompanied by the human-headed scorpion or eagle. But such a figure of 
a human-headed bull couchant is also shown in figs. 320, 321, 323. 


72 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


An extraordinarily large and fine example of the divine bull is shown in fig. 188 
from the de Sarzec collection in the Louvre. On one side of the inscription, which 
contains simply the name of the goddess Ninni, we see a lion and a bull crossed, 
by a frequent convention (usually two lions crossed attacking two bulls, or two 
bulls crossed attacked by two lions). Gilgamesh, in front view, clad only in his 
girdle and tassel, seizes the bull by the neck and one front leg, while another figure, 
quite differently clad in a short garment scarcely reaching the knee and with a 
high feathered headdress, seizes the lion in the same way. It is not clear whom 


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SS 


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Coa 


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B SN 


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189 


this figure represents, hardly Gilgamesh; he takes the usual place of Eabani. On 
the other side of the inscription we see two representations of the human-headed 
bull, one of which is attacked by Gilgamesh. Between the backs of the two human- 
headed bulls is the lion-headed eagle, the symbol of Lagash, stretching his talons 
out toward the great monsters as in the vase of Entemena (fig. 56). Besides this 
small eagle there is a tree and also a small figure of the Sun-god Shamash rising 
above the mountains, as explained in Chapter xl. 





So closely related to this that it might have come from the same atelier is the 
lapis-lazuli cylinder shown in fig. 189. On the one side of the two human-headed 
bulls is Gilgamesh in his usual representation, with bare head and curled hair, 
while on the other side is a similar figure, but with a square headdress and wearing 
a short fringed garment. Also a lion attacks a bull, and, under a short inscription 
of two lines which shows it belonged to a dupshar or scribe, a small figure, probably 
of a god, clothed in a long garment and with rays from his head, stands holding 
a long spear. Another example of this design is shown in fig. 192, where Gilgamesh 
attacks the lion which has attacked the human-headed bull. This design is repeated, 
reversed. 

Another representation is shown in fig. 191, in which Eabani, in profile, attacks 
a stag which is in turn attacked by a lion, and we see the human-headed bull attacked 
on one side by Gilgamesh and on the other by a lion. Here also we observe the 


GILGAMESH, EABANI, AND THE DIVINE BULL. 73 


dagger in the field. A beautifully engraved carnelian cylinder, but smaller, as the 
material required, is shown in fig. 190, where Gilgamesh, in profile, attacks a bull, 
while a double representation appears of Gilgamesh in front view attacking the 
human-headed bull. The two differ, however, in this, that in one case the hero 
grasps the fore leg of the monster, while in the other he thrusts a dagger into its 
bowels. ‘This is one of the cases that prove that it is a death struggle that is repre- 
sented, and no mere sport. Between the tails of the monsters is engraved a small 


= fam (Gam 
Sie picle7 


NY 


Yi 


a Re é tr ist a “us y mW 
AL ay VO fills 





figure with arms folded, perhaps a worshiper, or the owner of the seal. In 192a 
Gilgamesh is duplicated fighting the divine bull, while Eabani fights a lion; and 
there is a small god or, perhaps, worshiper. In fig. 193 we see the two representa- 
tions of the human-headed bull attacked by Gilgamesh, if it be Gilgamesh in both 
cases; for here, as in fig. 188, one of the heroes is in profile and wears a short skirt. 
Besides these we have another scene in which a god with rays from his shoulders, 
therefore some form of Shamash or Nergal, attacks Eabani. In fig. 194, besides 





the double representation of the front view Gilgamesh with the bull monster, we 
have the profile Gilgamesh attacking a lion; also in the field a club, a scorpion, 
and the peculiar emblem of a star connected with a rhomb, an early form of the 
symbol of the Sun-god. We have in fig. 195 probably a somewhat later represen- 
tation of the two bull monsters crossed, behind one of which is a lion attacked by 
Eabani; another scene gives us a gazelle attacked by a leopard. ‘The cases in which 
a leopard is represented are so few that it may be well to give here a fragment of a 
cylinder of this type and early period in which the human or semi-human figures 


74 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


have been lost (fig. 196), where we see a bull attacked on one side by a lion and 
on the other by a leopard. There is an intimation in the Epic of Gilgamesh (see 
Jastrow, “Religion of Babylonia and Assyria,” pp. 492, 514) that Gilgamesh over- 
came a “panther,”’ but it was probably a leopard. We have no pictures of what are 
likely to be “panthers.” An excellent example of the crossing of animal forms so 
much affected at this early period is seen in fig. 197, in which two human-headed 





bulls are crossed and two lions. One of the lions attacks one of the bull-monsters, 
while the other attacks a bull which is attacked on the other side by Gilgamesh 
seen in profile. In fig. 198 we have a very archaic example in which only a single 
bull-monster appears, with Gilgamesh and other animals. 

There is a small number of cases in which, by a sort of a degradation of the 
myth or a fantastic disregard of it as we know it, Gilgamesh appears to be repre- 
sented as contending with his friend Eabani, although this is more likely to appear 
at a somewhat later period, as in fig. 459. Equally fantastic is it when Gilgamesh 





Ae 
aha 


ray 
AN Gd & 
& Sif 


is decoratively represented as fighting against his double, as in fig. 199, where, 
while wrestling, each Gilgamesh is stabbing the other. The third Gilgamesh 
defies explanation. In Revue d’Assyriologie, v1, p. 57, Heuzey gives a similar 
figure on a bas-relief carrying fish in each hand. The god with the spouting vase 
is discussed in Chapter xxxvIl. 

There is a considerable number of cylinders of this period, not usually those 
of the better art, which represent animals alone, usually in conflict, with no human 
figure, or the human figure not at all distinctive. An unusually fine one which 





GILGAMESH, EABANI, AND THE DIVINE BULL. TD 


may be included under this head appears in fig. 200, in which we have a cypress 
rising between two hills, and on each side of the two hills a rampant bison. The 
tree, the hills, and the bisons all indicate a mountainous and forest region as the 
source of the art. There is also an unusual, archaic, linear inscription in five lines, 
which may contain a royal name. 





© 


Vy 


nf 
y 
: I 


Another of this class is fig. 201, in which, besides the lions and bulls, there are 
two lions’ heads and a scorpion. Another example is seen in fig. 202, in which two 
crossed lions attack two ibexes, and in the field are seen a small scorpion, a crescent, 
a star, and a second crescent, and a star connected with a triangular sign. For 
Gilgamesh grasping a serpent in each hand, after the fashion of the infant Hercules, 
see an archaic bas-relief (Heuzey, “Découvertes,” plate 39, 7). 

- In a considerable number of cylinders Gilgamesh or Eabani is seen as an 
attendant on other gods, or Gilgamesh is shown with streams from a spouting vase, 
but these will be considered later. 





CHAPTER XI. 


GILGAMESH WITH STREAMS. 


We have seen in fig. 26, the famous seal of the Elder Sargon, the extraordinary 
design in which a figure like Gilgamesh, fallen on his knee, holds up a vase, out of 
which spout two streams of water, while a buffalo raises his head to drink from the 
stream. One can hardly fail here to recognize the purpose of the artist to represent 
the importance of water and the fact that it is the gift of the gods. The same 
thought is expressed in fig. 129, where a vase in the sky is pouring out its stream 
to the earth. The same impression is given by the frequent representations of the 
solar disk, with its alternate rays and streams, as in the Abuhabba bas-relief (fig. 
310), and even more, if possible, in the very frequent representations of a vase in 
the upper portion of the designs on the seals. That Gilgamesh is the personage 
represented on the Sargon cylinder is by no means settled. ‘To be sure it is his 
face, in front view, with his curls; but just as the bearded and seated god may 
represent several different gods and kings, owing to the paucity of design and the 
inability to draw a portrait, so this conventional form of Gilgamesh may represent 
other beings than he. We know, in the somewhat full story of Gilgamesh, no inci- 
dent or attribute which suggests his giving of water to the world as Prometheus 
gave fire. But, while we shall find other representations of a deity, such as the 
seated Shamash who holds a vase with streams, and while it will be necessary in 
a later chapter to discuss the spouting vase, the number of cases in which Gilga- 
mesh, or a god resembling him, is the giver of water is so great that it is necessary 
here to bring them into separate notice. 

Gilgamesh with streams, if we may call him Gilgamesh, does not occur promi- 
nently in the most archaic art. He appears not much before the time of Sargon L., 
which, although early, is not actually archaic. He is represented, as in the Sargon 
cylinder, as a principal figure in the design, but quite as frequently as a subsidiary 
figure, and of reduced size to fill up a space otherwise vacant. He would hardly 
seem to represent a primary god, but rather an attendant or assistant god, whose 
service is directed by a chief deity. We get the same idea from the service which 
he and Eabani, or a figure like Eabani, render in standing by a god and holding a 
sort of mace before him; and the fact of his nudity suggests service rather than 
any principal role, inasmuch as naked male figures are generally servants, bearing 
offerings. 

Thus in fig. 648 we see Gilgamesh, for we will call him so, but with reserve, 
standing in attendance before a principal god in a shrine of waters, whom, in a 
luminous paper, M. Heuzey identifies with Ea. But that Gilgamesh himself is 
identified with the gift of water is at least suggested by fig. 203. Here it is evidently 
Gilgamesh who lifts two buffaloes by the hind leg, but on each side of him the 
streams of a spouting vase fall to the ground. ‘This is one of the few cases, like that 
of the Sargon seal, in which the cylinder connecting Gilgamesh with the gift of water 
is of an early period. Most of the cases are later, from the time of Gudea downward. 

76 


GILGAMESH WITH STREAMS. (ei 


One such we have in fig. 204, a very late cylinder, where Gilgamesh holds a 
vase to his breast and the streams fall to the ground. On one side of his head is 
the star of Ishtar, and on the other the thunderbolt of Ramman. ‘This cylinder is 
peculiar in that the sole figure of Gilgamesh runs around the seal, instead of being 
engraved in the direction of its length. This trick of engraving Gilgamesh trans- 
versely, instead of vertically, on the cylinder is, perhaps, peculiar to this hero. 
I recall two other such cases (but without streams). One of these is given in fig. 
205. This seems quite archaic and the hero holds the two standards to be treated 





203 
later, whether oars, as Ball (“Light from the East’’) calls them, or doorposts, as 


Heuzey suggests. Above is the lion, which seems to show that the Gilgamesh with 
the standards is the same hero, as he also fights wild beasts; but, if so, he is likely 
to be the same as the Gilgamesh with streams, because he holds the standards in 
fig. 648. Another case in which the figure of Gilgamesh runs transversely around 
the cylinder is seen in fig. 206, where it is enveloped in names of gods. 

Another case of Gilgamesh with streams, somewhat earlier, is shown in fig. 207. 
Here are four figures. Gilgamesh, holding his vase, stands by himself, unrelated to 
the others. ‘The remaining three form a group, of which Ramman-Martu is the 


£ @ &wee 



















ee iy . SN nn - \ 
Ds iiehl (Nit, fA 
wh Ani 








207 

center. Behind him is his wife Shala, and before him a bearded god not identifiable, 
possibly Ea or Marduk. In the field are a column, a crook, and a tortoise (or 
porcupine). 

In fig. 208 Gilgamesh holds the vase, with streams, and there are two stand- 
ing female deities, one nude, in whom we are accustomed to recognize Zirbanit, 
and the other of uncertain identity, holding a sort of crutch. Before the latter 
stand a worshiper and a servant with a vase and pail. There is a star and a vase, 
Aquarius, looking more like an anchor, over the uncertain object which usually 
accompanies it and which for convenience may be provisionally called “ Libra.” 

Gilgamesh with streams is also a principal personage in fig. 209. With him 
is the standing Sun-god, Shamash, holding his notched sword, with a worshiper 
and another attendant, who may be Aa, his wife, although she has but one hand 


78 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


raised. His head has been purposely defaced. ‘The style of the engraving shows 
a northern source and it was purchased at Mardin. Very much like it in its style 
of cutting is fig. 210. The lower part of the seal is broken off, but it is easy to 
recognize Ramman-Martu and the goddess, apparently Ishtar, who lifts up the 
Babylonian caduceus of two serpents, under which is a small figure of Zirbanit. 


Y LU) Z 
G 2/7 Or Jos 
EC Oye 









VP 
FS) NX 
’V 
IDA : 


NI 








p—fh 
Ls 
ae 


208 

Another excellent example, apparently from the later Babylonian period, is 
seen in fig. 211. On one side of the head of Gilgamesh is the sun in the crescent, 
and on the other a head like that of Gilgamesh. On one side of him stands Zir- 
banit, and the careful marking of the navel shows the late period. On the other 
side is a deity, partly defaced, with the foot on a goat, perhaps, or a gazelle, and 
holding a crook, the meaning of which is not clear. The remaining space is filled 
with three registers, the upper one of which gives us two small, nude figures, each 
lifting one foot across the other knee. The other figures in this and the other regis- 
ters are partly defaced, but show small figures and a quadruped. 

An interesting cylinder is shown in fig. 345, where Gilgamesh and another 
standing god each are the source of streams which fall into a single vase on the 
ground. Above the vase held in the other god’s hand is the goat-fish. This seems 
to identify this god as Ea and to indicate that Gilgamesh is his attendant and 
servant. 





In the Hittite seals Gilgamesh was a frequent figure. Such a case is shown in 
fig. 837, where we see two figures of the kneeling Gilgamesh, each holding a vase. 

But quite as frequently we see Gilgamesh with streams represented as a sub- 
ordinate figure, reduced in size. We have an excellent example in fig. 212. Here 
it would seem to be indicated that the god we are considering is not Gilgamesh, 
for in his diminutive stature and holding in his hand his vase, whose stream falls 
into a second vase, he stands close to the full-sized Gilgamesh who plants his foot 
on the head of a reversed lion. A worshiper with a goat stands before Shamash, 
whose foot rests on a conventional mountain, and there are two female deities, one 
Ishtar with the caduceus holding a lion by a leash with one hand and with the 
other holding the scimitar of Marduk; the other an uncertain goddess, de face, 
whose representation is not frequent. 


GILGAMESH WITH STREAMS. 79 


In fig. 314, an apparently royal cylinder (although the inscription has been 
defaced) of about the Gudea period, we have, beside the full-length seated god, 
worshiper, and Aa, two small figures of Gilgamesh, one standing without streams 
and the other kneeling with streams. 

Occasionally the Gilgamesh-like figure is to be seen holding the vase to his 
breast, but without the streams spouting from it, as in fig. 213. The other figures 
are the standing Shamash with Aa, and Ramman with a worshiper, and a filiary 
inscription. We observe the unusual style of drawing the sun in the crescent, in 
a circle of dots. “he cylinder is probably rather late. 





313 

It is extremely difficult to settle the question whether the Gilgamesh who 
provides the world with water is the same Gilgamesh that conquers wild beasts 
and who fights also with Eabani and even with himself. We have seen indica- 
tions both for and against the identification. It is against it that in fig. 199 
Gilgamesh accompanies the water-god ; and the same is true in fig. 212, but he 
does not himself have streams. One is inclined to imagine that in the other 
world, as a sort of demi-gods, Gilgamesh and Eabani were the attendants of the 
chief water-god Ea, or of other gods, but no such text is known. For further 
discussion of this matter see the chapter on the spouting vase. In Gudea’s great 
text (Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, 1904, p. 134) as translated by Thureau-Dangin, 
one of the objects of his temple was an E-nad-da, said to be “like the vase which 
in the totality of countries the pure hero of the abyss holds,” very likely the Gil- 
gamesh, says Thureau-Dangin, as often represented. 


CHAPTER XII. 


BAU-—GULA. 


The identity of Bau, or Gula (for the two goddesses, originally separate, were 
found to be identical), is settled by her representation in the kudurru found at Susa 
by M. de Morgan, where we find her name, Gula, by the side of the figure of a seated 
goddess (fig. 1270; see “ Délégation en Perse, Recherches Archéologiques,” p. 168). 
From several kudurrus which give figures of the goddess we may select fig. 1274, 
where she is seated and wears the complicated, high-folded turban, a flounced 
garment, long hair, holds up both hands, and is accompanied by her dog, or it 
may be a lion. There appear to be two principal forms of the seated goddess, one 
being the Ishtar with weapons rising from her shoulders and with face in front view, 
though she is usually standing, shown in figs. 407-421; the other the seated goddess 
with face usually in profile and with no particular emblem to distinguish her, 
whom we recognize as Bau or Gula. Yet we must remember that Bau and Gula 
were originally distinct, and on de Morgan’s named kudurru, the imperfect name 
by the walking bird seems to be Bau, while that of Gula is by the seated goddess. 
On the bas-relief, fig. 1264a, which represents a goddess in the lap of a god, Heuzey 
reads the name Bau on the epigraph. 








215 
We have had examples in the chapters on archaic cylinders of seated deities; 


but in those cases, where all are beardless, it is impossible to distinguish the male 
from the female deities. Very likely the most of them were goddesses, but of that 
we could not be certain. In the following period it is usually easy, if the cylinder 
is well preserved, to recognize the goddesses by the beardless face and to some 
extent by the dressing of the hair. Often the hair of the goddess hangs down on 
her back or on her shoulder, which is not to be expected in the case of a god. The 
large loop behind, with a band about the loop, is also generally, but not solely, 
feminine. 

An example of the goddess whom we recognize as Gula, or Bau, is seen in fig. 
214. The goddess wears the flounced dress and holds a flower, or more likely a 
bunch of dates, in one hand, and the other is raised in token of the acceptance of 
the offering of the worshiper. Her hair 1s worn in a long tress behind, and on her 
head is the high-horned, or folded, turban. A worshiper brings a goat; his wife, 
or maid, brings an offering in a pail, and another female attendant serves the two 

80 


BAU-GULA. 81 


vases. Above is a star of unusual form, also a small circle in a crescent, and we 
have the name of the owner of the seal. 

We have in fig. 215 another example of the same goddess. We observe the 
same long tress hanging down her back, and again the male worshiper brings a 
goat and also pours a drink-offering on an altar, while two female attendants 
present other offerings. We have also the same star and crescent and a slender 
tree or reed. The goddess carries here a club or scepter as her badge of authority. 
Another example in which the same goddess, duplicated for symmetry, appears 
with her hair hanging down her back is seen in fig. 216, where the consort of the 
goddess, perhaps, Ningirsu, stands behind her on one side and the worshiper and 
female attendant on the other. 











Here, perhaps, we may include an extraordinarily well-cut cylinder belonging 
to an early period, shown in fig. 217. It can hardly be later than Gudea and is 
probably somewhat earlier, as shown by the cypress tree. The goddess wears a 
sort of crown, and her hair is apparently in two long tresses down her back. The 
female worshiper appears to be spinning thread. Her hair is looped, showing how 
the two forms of feminine coiffure were in use simultaneously. This cylinder 
belonged to a woman. 

We have already observed (fig. 127) the altar with a step, or shelf, of a different 
form from the more usual, and very likely later, altar which is slenderer and of a 
shape approaching that of an hourglass. Such an altar stands before the two- 


an 


oe 
a S 
: 219 


horned goddess in fig. at On the altar is a cup apparently with burning oil, and 
two worshipers approach, apparently a man and his wife. The man’s hair is shorter 
and curls up a little behind; but, although the cylinder is worn, we can see that the 
hair of the goddess, as well as of the female worshiper, is long and tied up with a loop. 
The looped hair is the usual coiffure for the goddess and her female worshipers 
in the early period. Sometimes a procession of women approaches her. Such we 
see in fig. 219. We have here the more frequent form of the altar, on which appears 
to be laid a cloth, and cakes (“shew-bread’’) are laid upon it. Above the altar is 
a star, probably here the sun, over the crescent. This cylinder is credited to the 
Museum of The Hague by Lajard, but is not in Ménant’s catalogue of that col- 
lection. Another similar procession of women approaching the goddess is shown 
6 





j 








82 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


in fig. 220, where we have the star, probably here the sun and not Ishtar. Another 
example of a procession is seen in fig. 221, on which we have, beside the seated 
goddess, a female worshiper and her husband, and then perhaps the same couple 
or another couple separated by an irregular tree. But it is noticeable that the 
woman is the leader of the two. In fig. 222 two of the women in the procession 
stand before the goddess and two behind her. All have the hair looped, as does 
the goddess. The tree is a date-palm, notwithstanding the distance between the 









Q 
r 
cea 









A \aiee 


“222 
branches. In fig. 223 one female worshiper presents the offering to the goddess, 
who accepts the cup, while a second carries the pail and a third stands behind the 
goddess with a fan. The fan is rare in Babylonian art, but frequent in corresponding 
Assyrian scenes; although the fan is here small, but with a long handle. In 
place of the altar is a table; and the other objects are a crescent, the slender 
tree, and the star-sign of the sun. In fig. 224 we have both the goddess and her 
consort, but here the god is the principal figure and the male worshiper stands 





295 226 
before him; while another, or the same one repeated, stands behind the god; and 
a woman, it may be the wife of the owner of the seal, stands behind the goddess, 
each with looped hair. ‘The hair of the male figure is the same as in fig. 218. 

In quite a number of these designs the worshiper is led by the hand to the god- 
dess, and this form of the scene is more frequent in a period somewhat later, but 
yet early. A good example is seen in fig. 225, where we have a cylinder dated in 
the reign of Gudea, with the inscription, “Gudea, patesi of Lagash; Abba, scribe, 
thy servant.”’—Price. Here a female divine attendant on the goddess leads to her 
the owner of the seal, whose hair is dressed in the same masculine manner as in the 
last case, while the female figures have the hair looped. With this compare fig. 226, 


BAU-—GULA. 83 


where the inscription, partly filiary and in two columns, is unfortunately defaced, 
but appears to read, “Dada of Nippur.”” Another example appears in fig. 227, of an 
earlier period, where we have a maid with a pail for an offering. Noticeable are the 
unusual duplication of the crescent and the dagger-like object under the star, prob- 
ably the emblem of a god (figs. 150, 151). 

The variety of this design which gives us the worshiper led by a flounced 
divine attendant to the goddess was a favorite one in the time of Gudea, as shown 
by the number of cases in which it appears impressed on case tablets of his 
period. One of these is shown in fig. 228. Here we have, what might be expected 
from this place and time, the so-called “eagle of Lagash”’ before the goddess. 

We have precisely the same design in fig. 229, except that there is a lion figured 
on the seat of the goddess, as perhaps on the kudurru in fig. 1274. But it may be 
that the lion on the seat of the goddess indicates that the deity represented is not 
Bau but Ishtar, who is peculiarly connected with the lion. Indeed another cylinder 
of the same type impressed on a tablet in the Louvre (fig. 421) has the goddess 
(misdrawn by the artist as a god) with two lions on her seat and two lions (or 
serpents) rising from her shoulders. 





Much more frequent than either the lion or the eagle of Lagash, as accompany- 
ing the goddess Bau, is the long-necked bird which appears to be a swan or per- 
haps a goose. We see it in fig. 230, where we have both the eagle of Lagash and the 
bird, and a crutch-like object behind the goddess. But a much more decisive case, 
in which this is made the peculiar bird of Bau, as the peacock was of Juno, is 
shown in fig. 231, drawn from the impression of the seal on a tablet of the Gudea 
period or a little earlier. Under the seat and feet of the goddess are two swans, 
apparently, just as we see two lions under the feet of Ishtar. We have in the field 
the star in a crescent and two scorpions. In order to illustrate the relation of 
this bird to the goddess, three other cases are herewith drawn (figs. 232, 233, 234). 
Fig. 233 is noticeable for what appears to be a vase on a pole. Other such examples 
are seen, however, though less rarely, in which the swan (or goose, if such it be, or 
even heron) is found without the goddess to whom she specially belongs. Such 
cases we see in figs. 306, 309. In such cases we may regard the bird as the simple 


84 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


emblem of the goddess, as a vase or a thunderbolt may be the emblem of the deity. 
A curious case is seen in fig. 235, where three figures approach the goddess, behind 
whom is a cypress tree, with two birds, hardly swans, looking up to it. Fig. 236 1s 
again of the period of Gudea, and the goddess carries her club, and the three usual 
figures approach. We have the small kneeling Gilgamesh and another small figure. 
This cylinder is peculiar in that the ends are enlarged to imitate a metal setting. 
We occasionally see the impression of such an enlargement on the tablets. For a 
unique case in which the goddess seems to be borne with a swan in an animal- 
boat, see fig. I10. 





It may be well to add a perhaps later case of this goddess seen in fig. 237, 
where the worshiper is led, as frequently, and we have the vase before the goddess 
and its accompanying “libra.” But what is remarkable is the serpent caduceus 
with two heraldic antelopes. 


— iw oS 


=O, AON 
; = a tit 
—f\( N Dest panel 
’ a BN /7 aes 
y lh mY Maire ii 
hi 8 1S nial <= 
I " fh ° min 
Ti $h__§ 4 
i ior we 4 
nN ———— 
_—_— 
ELIE DAP TOE POEL AA TRIES 








meaty =z 
fiir os 


J 


AW J 


Witt 


gue 


a Pe 





In connection with these cylinders which seem clearly to represent Bau, or 
Gula, may be placed fig. 238, a decidedly archaic cylinder, in which, although all 
the figures are beardless, the seated deity appears to be a goddess. It is quite 
unusual to have a goddess represented with streams and fish, like the god Shamash 
(figs. 288, 289). Behind the illegible inscription is a figure, presumably male, with 
a staff, and in somewhat the attitude of the porter of a gate, and behind him is the 
object which Heuzey regards as the post of a gate. Other examples in which the 
same goddess appears are shown in figs. 240, 241, 242. 

In fig. 239 we have two registers, with a seated bearded god in the upper register 
and a seated goddess in the lower. In the upper the worshiper, following the guide, 
is led by the hand, and in the lower the worshiper follows the guide and carries a 
basket. There is a slender tree, like a poplar, in the upper and a palm in the 
lower. One would suspect that the god was Ningirsu and the goddess Bau. 


BAU-GULA. 85 


I have regarded this goddess, seated, with long hair, but usually holding no 
special emblem in her hands, as Bau-Gula. We shall also consider her as probably 
the mother-goddess holding the king or worshiper on her knees in the discussion 
of the figs. 401-406. Another name is Gasigdug, apparently, although also differ- 
entiated; and Gudea speaks of her, under the latter name, as his “mother who 
produced him”’ (Jastrow, “ Religion,” p- 60). She was an ancient goddess, whose 


aaa Soe 
Fae? | es ies 





Ail 


* ‘243 

name was an element in that of King Ur-Bau as early as 3000 B. C., and she was 
constantly invoked and honored by Gudea. Indeed she seems to have been, in the 
view of Lagash, the chief of all the deities, and it was she that was honored with 
special marriage gifts on the New Year’s Day. Her husband Ningirsu, or Ninib, 
seems to have been regarded as hardly equal to her, if we can judge from the repre- 
sentations of the two in early art. She gives birth to mankind, is the source of all 
fertility, of plants as well as men; she fills Gudea with speech; a quarter of the city 
of Lagash was given to her. She was the daughter of Anu, and so the head of the 
female pantheon, and was the mother of Ea, the second 
in the Chaldean trinity. As the mother of Ea, she may 


waters of Heaven. She may have had streams of her 
own, as we see in fig. 238; and it must be considered 
whether it is Bau even in the case where, in connection 
with the dragon, the goddess is accompanied with floods 
or streams (fig. 129). We shall also know her as the 





Bau-bab, Bau of the Gate, in the discussion of figs. Nkwen 
. : Hy aye nia 
349-361; and she may have been the goddess with MR 


wheat (figs. 381-383), although that is quite as likely to “py, 

have been Nisab. If we may accept Hrozny (“Mythen tee 

von Ninrag,” pp. 115, 116), Bau was not only the goddess of plants, but also of 
the rainbow, and thus the Oriental Iris. 

The figure of Bau and with her that of her consort Ningirsu are determined not 
only by her name on the kudurru, seen in fig. 1275, which bears the name Gula, but 
also by a bas-relief seen in fig. 243. (De Sarzec, “Découvertes,”’ plate 25, fig. 5; 
Heuzey, “Catalogue des Antiquités Chaldéennes,” p. 143; ‘ Découvertes,”’ plate 
25, 5, not plate 22 as in text of both works.) Here all that can be read of the illeg- 
ible inscription is “To the goddess Bau, his sovereign”’ (so Heuzey, “ Découvertes, ” 
p. 215), but fortunately this is enough. We have the statement that the goddess 
sitting on the knees of the god is Bau, and the god is therefore Ningirsu. The 
goddess on his knees 1s parallel to the cylinders in which the goddess holds on her 
knees a small human figure, as in figs. 401-406. We recognize in the goddess the 


86 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


long ranges of folds of the elaborate turban, the long hair as on the cylinders, the 
flounced garment, and the necklaces and the front view. She seems in this case 
to be quite as important as the god. 

A date for these figures of Bau is fixed by the impression of a seal on a tablet 
in the Louvre shown in fig. 45 and described by Heuzey in Revue d’Assyriologie, 
Iv, p. 5. The inscription gives the date and name of the Elder Sargon. It is a 
very large cylinder. It has the usual scene of a single worshiper before the goddess 
as the space is taken with four inscriptions. Her hair is looped behind and her 
hands are folded. The female attendant behind her has her hair in a long tress 
and carries perhaps a load from the staff on her shoulder. ‘There is also the cypress 
tree frequent in the earlier art, but never appearing in the cylinders of the late 
Middle Babylonian period. 

The goddess Bau, or Gula, seems to have been chiefly honored in the early 
period. But the period of the kudurrus, of the date of the Kassite dynasty, shows 
that the goddess had not lost her value in the second millennium B.C. Still even 
on the kudurrus she was not a usual accompaniment. No other goddess had -any 
equal chance of persistent honor except Ishtar. It is sometimes said that the Baby- 
lonian and Assyrian worship tended toward monotheism; it certainly tended to a 
single goddess, whether Bau or Ishtar. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


SHAMASH, THE RISING SUN. 


No class of cylinders better illustrates the poetic imagination of a primitive 
people than those which give us the representation of the Sun-god Shamash emerg- 
ing from the gates of morning and rising over the Eastern mountains. They are 
those in which George Smith fancied that he saw the building of the Tower of 
Babel, and which Ménant supposed to represent the gates of the underworld open- 
ing to receive the dead. Of these cylinders there are twenty or more in the collec- 
tions, and those of importance are here figured. 

This scene was first fully explained and discussed, with figures of all the then 
known examples, by me in the American Journal of Archzology, vol. 111, 1887, 
pp. 50-56, “The Rising Sun on Babylonian Cylinders.” But antecedently, in a 
paper not then known to me, M. Heuzey, to whose quick intelligence we owe more 
by way of interpreting the scenes in the ancient art than to all other scholars since 
Ménant, had recognized (in a paper, “Le Stéle des Vautours,”’ in the Gazette 
Archéologique, 1884, pp. 198, 200, and reprinted in his “Origines,”’ pp. 760-778) 
that the same had been generally misconceived, and that it had a “caractére 
sidéral,”’ and that the gates had to do with “the morning and evening, the summer 
and winter, the east and the west.” In his “Mythes Chaldéenes,” 1895, Heuzey 
developed this explanation. 

We shall see, in fig. 291, a standing god of this general type receiving the 
captured bird-man brought to him for judgment and punishment, and shall there 
recognize him as identical with the seated Shamash who usually thus acts as “judge 
of gods and men.”’ In this chapter we recognize him by his foot usually raised on 
a mountain, or on the conventional symbol for a mountain. He wears a divine 
tiara, with horns, two or more, and a long garment open in front, from which his 
bare leg protrudes as he lifts it upon the mountain. As characteristic an example 
as any is seen in fig. 244. Here we see the two gates, each with a porter, the Sun- 
god with rays from his shoulders, his foot lifted high on the mountain, and his usual 
notched sword in his hand. ‘The gates are of the early style, with door-posts resting 
in sockets, like the many stone sockets preserved and inscribed with names of the 
early kings. ‘There are perhaps two leaves to the gate, opening outward and swing- 
ing on a vertical post which is set in the lower socket and is held in a ring or in 
some other way at the top. Above the gate, in this case, is an ornament in the 
form of a lion. These lions remind us of the two lions over the Hittite portal at 
Marash. The apparent curvature of the sides of the gates is due to the concave 
surface of the cylinder. The gates are conceived of as of wood, with cross-bars 
of bronze, as in the gates of Balawat. In these cylinders there are usually two 
gates and two porters. It is not at all clear that they represent, as suggested, two 
leaves of one portal; and still less is it probable that they represent two different 
gates, one of the morning and one of the evening. It is quite as likely that they are 
doubled simply for the sake of symmetry and represent but a single gate and a 

87 


88 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


single porter. At the same time we may presume that Tammuz and Ningish- 
zida are the two guardians of the gates of heaven. 

The Sun-god is surrounded by rays from his shoulders, as we have seen in the 
representations of Nergal (Chapter 1x), the god of the midday and midsummer 
heat. His weapon is peculiar, carried by no other god, and deserves special study. 
It has a sort of handle, is curved, and the whole edge of it is sharply notched. We 
are not to think of this as a branch, or palm (Heuzey, “Origines,”’ p. 299), nor as 
a weapon of metal, but as a relic of the stone age. It is, as explained by me in my 
article cited above, a wooden weapon, the edge of which is thick-set with flint, 
giving it a saw-edge. This is a style of weapon for which we have examples in primi- 
tive conditions of life and warfare. Thus Petrie gives (Nature, December 5, 1889) 
an account of a wooden scimetar with flint chips from a town of the twelfth dynasty. 
The Mexicans also made use of such a weapon, called maquahuitl; and indeed to 
the present day Eastern threshing-machines are set with flint. One of the Hittite 
hieroglyphs suggests.a similar weapon. 

We observe besides this notched weapon another in the field, which is the war- 
club so often seen on the early cylinders, the top or knob of which is often so cut as 
to suggest that it is of stone, but which was probably made usually of the bitumen of 
the country, such a weapon as the shepherds of the region so frequently carry to-day. 





The mountains here are represented in a usual way by imbricated curves. 
But we shall see that the mountains were represented in other ways, and nearly 
as frequently by superposed horizontal lines. In this case the god puts his foot on 
the mountain in front of him. On other cylinders we shall see him standing between 
two mountains, with his notched weapon in one hand, or lifting himself up between 
the mountains by resting his two hands on two mountains, in which case, of course, 
his hands are so occupied that he can not carry his weapon. 

In this cylinder we see a fourth figure with hands together and in a garment 
and headdress like those of the other figures. ‘This may represent a worshiper, 
perhaps, going back to a time when no distinction was made between the dress 
of gods and men. 

There remain to be considered the symbols before and behind the god. That 
in front of him can hardly be anything else than the early form of the character which 
represents Shamash, the sun, or Utu. We may take it as the designation of the 
god who is figured, and it stands properly before him. The other sign is less clear. 
It is translated in Ball’s “Light from the East,” p. 151, as “God of the Mountain,”’ 
which would make it an additional designation, or by-name, of Shamash; or it 
would seem to designate the porter. But more likely, as Prof. Ira M. Price tells 
me, it is the designation of Ningirsu. The star above indicates that it is a divine 
being. These are very archaic characters, and it is to be observed that few of 
these more ancient cylinders have any other inscription. 


SHAMASH, THE RISING SUN. 89 


Another very interesting cylinder is seen in fig. 245. Here we have the two 
porters and the god with his foot on a mountain. The gates are represented as 
on the tops of the mountains; and we observe that the god carries the war-club 
instead of the usual notched weapon. A special peculiarity is the second repre- 
sentation, perhaps of the god in his boat as we saw him in fig. 109, it may be in his 
night journey through the underworld. 


le x 


al\AY 


247 

Another example appears in fig. 246, where the god rests his hand on the 
mountain behind him, while his lifted foot rests on the mountain before him. And 
we have also a star and a scorpion. In the same way one hand rests on a mountain 
in fig. 247, a broken cylinder of which enough remains. to show the full design. 
Fig. 248 has a variation in adding a cypress-tree. Fig. 249 is from a much worn 
cylinder, but one of shell, and presumably of a very 
early period. It shows a worshiper under a crescent; 
and the mountains are engraved in a peculiar way. 
In fig. 250 the god carries both his weapons, the flint 
scimitar and the club; and a space for an inscription, 
either erased or never engraved, takes the place of 
one of the porters. 248 

Sometimes but a single gate appears, as in fig. 251. Here we have, besides the 
god and the porter, a worshiper standing before the god, and a second bearded 
and flounced figure with hands lifted. This is decidedly unusual, and I have no 
suggestion to make as to who is represented by it. In fig. 251a the god with rays 
steps on one of the two mountains and seems to hold a club rather than a notched 


See EE 


for. ee ‘me 
: " eed 


sword in his hand. A worshiper presents a goat. Another case of a single gate 
occurs in fig. 252. Here the god holds in one hand his notched weapon and in the 
other a club. We have observed in figs. 245, 249 the club alone held by him. The 
mountain is made in another conventional way, as if with steps; and an attendant 
god, or priest, leads the worshiper to the god. A similar case appears in fig. 253, 
where the god bears both his notched weapon and his club, and his name is in the 
character behind him. 


% 














90 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Sometimes the god, instead of stepping up over the mountains, lifts himself 
by his hands, resting one or both on the mountains between which he stands. Such 
a case we see in fig. 254. Here the mountains are rudely represented by parallel 
horizontal lines. We particularly notice the early character between the backs 
of the two porters. It is not easy to say what it means, perhaps a variant of the 





eae’, 











252 253 
symbol or character for Shamash, the sun, which we saw in fig. 244. Another, 
of similar design, is shown in fig. 255, where a cypress-tree is again introduced. 
Fig. 256 is peculiar in that, since the god’s two hands are occupied in lifting him- 
self, an attendant carries his notched weapon for him until he shall escape the 
mountains between which he rises. In fig. 257 the god has only one hand on the 
mountain, while the other carries his characteristic weapon, and we see his name 
in the character under the crescent. 





Sometimes the god simply stands between the two mountains and appears to 
rise without visible effort, as in fig. 258 or in fig. 259, an unfinished cylinder. In 
the splendid cylinder shown in fig. 188 a narrow space is filled with a reduced 
representation of the Sun-god with his hands resting on mountains. This may 
suggest the beginning of a tendency toward a conventionalizing of the representa- 
tion of the god; but it took another form. 


SHAMASH, THE RISING SUN. 91 


Like nearly all the early vigorous designs representing the gods, this degen- 
erated, in the Middle Babylonian period, into a conventional form, the meaning 
of which could not be discovered except from the earlier more pictorial represen- 
tation. The transition appears in fig. 38, where the god’s foot is lifted high and 
some attempt is made to preserve the suggestion of the mountain, but the space 
belonging to the gates and porters is given to an inscription and the procession of 
figures approaching the god. This inscription is peculiarly important, as it gives the 
date of the cylinder, about 2400 B.C. It reads: “Gudea, Patesi of Lagash, .. . 
his servant.” It was at the time of Gudea that the older types had fairly passed 
into the more conventional types of the smaller hematite cylinders. In fig. 260 
the worshiper with a goat, or antelope, is brought before the Sun-god, who has 
rays and carries his notched weapon, and lifts his foot high. ‘The peculiar thing 
about this cylinder is the form of the object before the Sun-god, not easily recognized. 
Other illustrations of this type are seen in figs. 261, 268, where the god carries a 


VS 


—— =| 
APTS MINNA 
| 
D . 
i \ 
fr : orth 
: 1) 
Nira 0 N 
S tS 


Ii MAN Ey 
H 





war-club or ax, and the usual procession approaches. 
The final and usual form, fully conventionalized, is seen 
in figs. 263, 264, where the mountain has been reduced to 
a mere footstool, and where we find the frequent inscrip- 
tion with the names of the god Shamash and his wife Aa, 
both of whom appear, with the worshiper, on the cylinder. 
We have a multitude of cylinders in which Shamash is 
thus represented, often with Aa. It is unusual, however, that the standing Shamash 
has his foot, as in fig. 265, on a human-headed bull, although we see, in figs. 320, 
322, 323, the seated Shamash thus figured. We have also a god, like Nergal, with up- 
lifted weapons, and his foot on a prostrate foe, as shown in Chapter xxvil. This 
cylinder probably is not from Babylonia proper, but from a more northern region. 

Occasionally a god whom we must identify with Shamash carries an entirely 
different weapon in his hand. In fig. 266 Shamash has his foot on an elevation, 
but instead of a notched sword he carries what perhaps we may regard not as a 
floral branch, but as a club with five knobs, or perhaps as a degraded form of the 
Egyptian emblem of stability. But it appears in a bas-relief of the time of Gudea 





92 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


as an important but unidentified emblem. See Heuzey, ‘“‘ Une des sept stéles de 
Goudéa,” plate 11, fig. 1. This closely crowded cylinder has another god holding 
an object like a crutch, which may represent the crescent moon on a standard, and 
so be meant for Sin. It is hardly likely that the crescent is a reduced caduceus. 
Before each of the two gods is one large and one diminutive worshiper, besides the 
vase and “libra,”’ a serpent and a tortoise. 

Occasionally also the Sun-god, with foot on a stool, carries a weapon with 
crossbars, somewhat like the Egyptian emblem of stability. Such a case we have 
in the comparatively late cylinder, wrought with the wheel, which we see in fig. 267. 
There is a second god with his foot on an animal and holding a thunderbolt, evi- 


dently Adad, and a worshiper is before each LSA 


of 





var fi i it 2 





For yet another representation of the Sun-god between gates we turn to an 
unexpected region. In the opening of a mound near Urumia, in Persia, a few years 
ago there was found in a chamber a little cylindrical pyx of alabaster described by 
me in vol. vi of the American Journal of Archzology, pp. 286-291. The design 
on the surface of the pyx is given in fig. 269. It shows us the Sun-god between the 
two gates, each held by a porter. The god holds a club in his hand. His foot is 
but slightly lifted on an elevation, but the whole lower portion is drawn to represent 
mountains. On one side the usual is Be ae 4 the god, and on the other 







J G/ 
BN Yi ¢ 
ys: 


Ss a ig 


Fie lab 






Ba 
SS} 





we see the figure of Eabani holding a standard, while behind him * a second stan- 
dard with a monkey on the top of it. The drawing is heavy and doubtfully Baby- 
lonian, but the design is wholly controlled by early Babylonian thought. It is very 
interesting to find this design and this object, which must be of the earlier, but not 
the earliest, period, at so distant a point as the shores of the Lake Urumia. It may 
be that fig. 268 also belongs to one of the outlying countries, and not to Babylonia, 
although the Babylonian influence is scarcely lost. ‘This cylinder is of black schist. 
The god has rays from his shoulders and his foot is lifted high on a mountain, 
although there are no gates with porters. The ordinary scene appears of the wor- 
shiper led into the god’s presence. What is unusual is the weapon carried by the god, 


SHAMASH, THE RISING SUN. 93 


not the notched sword, but a battle-ax, such as is more frequently found in the art 
of the countries north and west of Assyria, although very rarely in ancient Babylonia. 

The meaning of this scene has already been anticipated. Indeed it is strange 
that it should have been so misconceived by George Smith who, followed by many 
others, saw in it the construction of a tower, like that of Babel (“Chaldean Account 
of Genesis,” p. 158). Ménant came nearer to the true idea when he called the 
gates those of the lower world, and the scene one in the abode of the dead, where 
Ishtar passed through seven gates (“Pierres Gravées,” 1, pp. 125, 126); and he 
saw in the Sun-god a deity of the lower world receiving the spirit of the dead. But 
it was Heuzey who, as stated above, first recognized the meaning of the gates and 
suggested that the scene had a “caractére sidéral.” 

The thought of the sun as a god traveling through the heavens was central to 
all Eastern worship of the heavenly bodies. “The Egyptians saw in the sun the 
god Ra, sailing in his boat through the sky and the underworld, and they provided 
the underworld with twelve great pylons guarded by serpents, through one of which 
the sun must pass every hour. ‘The Hebrew Scriptures show evidence of a similar 
notion. In Ps. 19: 4-6, the sun issuing from his chamber-doors is thus described: 


In them [the heavens] hath he set a tabernacle for the Sun [Hebrew Shemesh], 
Who is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, 

And rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course. 

His going forth is from the end of the heavens, 

And his circuit unto the ends of it: 

And there is nothing hid from his heat. 

In the Song of Deborah, we read, Judges 5: 31, “Let them that love him be 
as the Sun when he goeth forth in his might.” It was something more than a figure 
of speech when, in the fragment of an old song, Joshua 1s represented as command- 
ing the sun to stand still that he might slay his Amorite enemies (Joshua Io: 12): 

Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; 
And thou, Moon, in the valley of Ayalon, 
as written in the Book of Jashar. ‘That the sun and moon were both conceived as 
carrying weapons is implied in Ps. 121: 6, 
The Sun shall not smite thee by day, 
Nor the Moon by night. 
In Ps. 24 we have in the opening verses a brief cosmogony: 


The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, 

The world, and they that dwell therein. 

For he hath founded it upon the sea, 

And established it upon the floods, 
which is in accordance with the ancient idea that the earth rests like an island on 
an ocean; and the psalm concludes with an address to the gates through which 
the sun, or here Jehovah, enters: 


Lift up your heads, O ye gates, 
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, 
And the King of glory shall come in. 
Who is the King of glory? 
Jehovah, strong and mighty, 
Jehovah, mighty in battle. 


The gates of Hades are mentioned in Job 38:17, and Matt. 16: 18, and doors 
with bars to the sea in Job 38: to. 


94 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Babylonian religious literature makes frequent mention of these same gates. 
These are not simply the seven gates of the lower world through which Ishtar 
passed, to be stripped of her ornaments and garments, but also the gates of the 
morning and evening. ‘They are mentioned in the “Seven Tablets of Creation”’ 
(King, 1, p. 78, lines 9-11); 

He [Marduk] opened great gates on both sides; 

He made strong the bolt on the left and on the right. 

Between them he fixed the zenith. 
Here, in this Babylonian form of the Chaldean story, it is Marduk who is the crea- 
tor, but who replaces other gods, Bel or Ea, who were, very likely, successively 
the earlier creators. What was the exact meaning of these gates is indicated (v., 
p. 127, lines 8-14): 

When Anu, Bel, and Ea, 

The great gods, through their sure counsel 

Fixed the bounds of heaven and earth, 

And to the hands of the great gods entrusted 

The creation of the day and the renewal of the months which they might behold, 

And mankind beheld the Sun-god in the gate of his going forth, 

In the midst of heaven and earth they created him. 
In this syncretic version, in which the three great gods, Anu, Bel, and Ea, are rep- 
resented as the creators of all things, the gates of the heavens are particularly 
described as those through which the sun passes. A hymn to Shamash thus 
begins (Jastrow, “ Religion,” p. 301): 

O Shamash, out of the horizon of heaven thou issuest forth. 

The bolt of the bright heavens thou openest, 

The door of heaven thou dost open. 


O Shamash, over the world dost thou raise thy head; 
O Shamash, with the glory of heaven thou coverest the world. 


That there was a gate also at the setting of the sun appears in another hymn 
(2b25° p.2303): 
O Sun-god, in the horizon of heaven at thy setting, 
May the enclosure of the pure heavens greet thee, 
May the gate of heaven approach thee, 
May the directing god, the messenger who loves thee, direct thy way. 

Other passages of the same tenor might be quoted, but it is sufficient to quote 
one more in which the mountains out of which the sun rises are mentioned (thus 
translated by Jastrow, in note to my article mentioned above): 

O Sun, in thy rising out of the great mountain, 
In thy rising out of the great mountain, the mountain of fate, 
In thy rising out of the mountain, the place of destinies. 

Such passages as these, I venture to think, quite justify the interpretation of 
this favorite poetic scene now generally accepted. We see, on these cylinders, 
which are all of an early period, antedating Gudea, the Sun-god Shamash, at his 
rising out of the mountains of the East, in Elam, the Mountains of Nizir. He has 
passed through the Gates of the Morning, and the porter, the “directing god,” 
perhaps, the “ Misaru,” has opened the gates to him. This “directing god,” how- 
ever, may be the additional figure, garbed like a god, whom we see in figs. 244, or 251; 
or, perhaps, he may be quite otherwise represented, as in the famous bas-relief from 


SHAMASH, THE RISING SUN. 95 


Abu-habba, where we see two small figures above, guiding the disk of the sun as it 
rests on the platform before the seated god (fig. 310), and where we also appear to 
see him in his night journey passing through the waters of the ocean that under- 
lies the earth. It may be that the two porters represent Tammuz and Ningish- 
zida, who were represented as guardians of the gate of heaven (Sayce, “ Religion,’’ 
p. 460, Jastrow, “Religion,” p. 546), as told in the Adapa legend. Yet it is not 
clear that the gate of heaven could be identified with the gate of the morning, and 
every gate needs its own porters. After passing through the gates of the morning 
he makes his appearance on the mountains. Sometimes he was conceived as 
resting his hands on the two mountains between which he stands, and pushing 
himself up with his arms; but more frequently as with his foot high lifted and 
stepping stoutly up over the mountains. ‘This gave him opportunity to carry his 
peculiar and mighty weapon, the sword, or scimitar, set thick with flakes of flint, 
and sometimes also the less distinctive war-club. He rose like a mighty man, ready 
for battle against the enemies of the day. All this represents a very primitive and 
poetical product of an imaginative Sumerian race, who, in an animistic stage of 
culture, saw life to be placated or worshiped, in the movements of all inanimate 
things, and found nothing so well worth worship as the sun, or so full of vigor 
and life. 

The relation of Shamash to the Persian Mithra, who later became identical 
with the sun, is suggested by such a passage in the Yasts as we see in “ Sacred 
Books of the East, Zend-Avesta,” 11, p. 122. 

Who first of the heavenly gods reaches over Mount Alborz, before the undying swift-horsed sun ; 
who foremost in a golden array takes hold of the beautiful summits, and from thence looks over the abode 
of the Aryans with a beneficial eye. 

This is the precise picture of Shamash with his two hands on the mountains. The 
serrated weapon of Shamash is suggested again in the description of the weapon 
of Mithra, 7b., pp. 146, 156: 

Swinging in his hand a club with a hundred knots, a hundred edges, that rushes forward and fells 

men down, etc. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


THE SEATED SHAMASH: WITH RAYS OR STREAMS. 


We have seen in Chapter xu the standing Shamash issuing from the gates of 
the morning and climbing the mountains of the East. We shall also study the scene 
in the next chapter, where he is represented as a seated god judging the bird-man. 
We now have to consider one of the more usual scenes in which human beings 
approach the same or a similar god in worship or for judgment. But first, in this 
chapter, we recognize the god by his rays or streams. 

The Sun-god mounting the hills and starting on his day’s journey through 
the heavens was represented in the last chapter as a god of battles armed with 
weapons of war. He was also distinguished by the rays from his shoulders. When 
represented as seated in judgment on the bird-man he usually has the streams alone. 
Both of these attributes, the rays and the streams, we shall find in the cylinders we 
now must study. When we come to consider the emblems of the gods we shall find 
that the usual emblem of the Sun-god was a disk with alternate rays and streams, 


as so definitely shown in the bas-relief of Abu-habba (fig. 310). 


My 





It is not at all usual to have Horieats and streams represented; the artist 
was satisfied with a single one of the attributes. We have an example of the two 
in fig. 270. Indeed, I know of only one other, also in the Metropolitan Museum, 
in which the two are found together. The cylinder fig. 270 is of pink marble and 
does not give us the usual procession. Before the seated god is a crescent and 
behind him is the character which on the earlier seals designates the sun. The 
remaining space is taken up with the conquest of a lion by two figures which may 
well represent Gilgamesh, one of which seizes the reversed lion behind while the 
other attacks it in front with an ax. The other, fig. 270a, is rude and shows a wor- 
shiper led to the god, also a simple tree, a scorpion, and two stars. 

The cases in which the god is represented with rays from his shoulders, if not 
as numerous as those with streams alone, are not rare. A beautiful small cylinder 
of lapis-lazuli (fig. 271) is particularly instructive, as it shows us the god seated on 
a mountain instead of on his usual throne or, rather, stool. Before him are two 
emblems which will be considered later (Chapter Lx1x, No. 31), the upper a vase 
representing the waters of the heavens, while the other is of an unusual form and 
of a less certain significance. 

96 


THE SEATED SHAMASH: WITH RAYS OR STREAMS. 97 


A large and interesting cylinder is shown in fig. 272. The shoulders of the 
seated god are surrounded by rays, and it is to be noticed that while no streams are 
shown yet two fishes are drawn. In his hand he carries his notched sword, which 
is so distinctly drawn that it shows the guard, proving that it is not a branch or palm. 
Seven figures approach, identical in form, except that the first lifts his hand which 
holds a wand, or staff, and that the seventh is reduced in size, on account of the 
crowded space. What these seven figures mean is not clear to us, possibly divisions 
of the day. There is here no indication of any scene of judgment. 





A cylinder which is even more important for the identification of the seated 
god with rays is shown in fig. 273. Here we have not only the horned god with 
rays and notched sword, but also the porter with the gate, which distinctly belongs 
to Shamash. There is a club before and behind the god, and also behind him a tree. 

Most frequently two or more figures approach the god. ‘The first appears to 
be a subordinate or attendant deity, although usually called a priest, who leads 








the worshiper by the hand into the divine presence. This worshiper, who seems 
to represent the owner of the seal, often brings an offering, 1t may be a goat or it 
may be a branch, and he may be followed by a servant with a basket or pail which 
would contain further offerings. Very frequently we may expect the character 
representing Shamash, or the sun, in its old form to accompany the design. Thus 
in fig. 274 we have this sign which we have met in the seals representing the standing 
Shamash with gates, and the worshiper carries a branch. A similar branch is 
carried by the led worshiper in fig. 275. It will be noticed that in cylinders of this 
period the form of headdress is not distinctive of beings regarded as gods or demi- 
Zc 


98 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


gods, but is also worn by men. Still the worshiper may approach bareheaded, 
as a sign of humility in the presence of the god, as we see in figs. 276, 277, 289, 
in two of which cases the worshiper bears a goat in his arms. In fig. 278 the led 
worshiper with the goat is followed by two ser- 
vants who appear to be feminine, one of whom 
carries the object with a handle which we have 
called uncertainly a basket or a pail, but the 
shape of which here seems to indicate that it is 
of metal. In fig. 276 we observe the archaic 
inscription, also the star and the club. Fig. 277 
is an unusually simple one, and the animal borne 
for an offering appears to be not a goat but a gazelle. 

But not always does the worshiper carry any offering. In fig. 279 the wor- 
t of the god is the rare 








280 281 
ax, and the character for Shamash is of the largest size. The two attendants on 


the god, or “priests,” each carry a wand. We observe that in figs. 280, 282 the 
god no longer carries his notched weapon, although in fig. 280 clubs, as well as the 


name of the god, are in the field. In fig. 281 
we have the notched weapon and four ap- 
proaching figures, but in fig. 282 the rays from 
the god’s shoulders and the approaching figures 
are sufficient indication to identify the deity. 

In the two first of the cylinders figured in 
this chapter we saw a god designated as Sha- 
mash by both the rays and the streams. In 
the succeeding figures only the rays have ap- 
peared, although there were other means of identification, the mountain on which 
the god sat, the fishes, the gate and porter, and the character which gives his name. 
We have also seen the seated god with streams in fig. 140). We now have to con- 
sider those cylinders in which the characteristic mark of the god is the streams by 
which he is surrounded, 





THE SEATED SHAMASH: WITH RAYS OR STREAMS. 99 


An example of this class is seen in fig. 283. Here we have the seated god, the 
streams and fish, the hieroglyphic character for Shamash, a club, and three ap- 
proaching figures. In fig. 284 a new and very important feature is added, that of 
the two attendants on the god, each of whom carries a peculiar, tall pole, or standard 
with a semicircle near the top. We have seen this in fig. 268, the pyx from Urumia, 
and it will require further study. Here the figures are in profile, but they are often 
in full view, like the figures of Gilgamesh, and at other times they have both the 
face and composite figure of Eabani. 





283 

Fig. 285 has been figured by Heuzey (“‘ Sceau de Goudéa,”’ p. 6), who has care- 
fully discussed the figures before and behind the god, and particularly the object 
like a spear held in their hands, which we consider in Chapter Lx1x. About the god 
and the streams are fish, and there is a single worshiper. The position of the 
star under the crescent is quite peculiar, as are the spears also. I observe that on 
examining the cylinder I noted a doubt whether it were wholly genuine. But there 
is no question as to fig. 286. Here the god holds the vase, not as usual in his lap, 
but in his hand, and a bifrons figure brings the goddess and a worshiper. Behind 




















% 


». 


Vip 
i) 
i 


7D Tr . 
al 
ZB AD 


the second brings as his offering a prisoner, the bird-man, to be considered in the 
next chapter, slung by the foot from the club on his shoulder. Fig. 288 gives us the 
same seated god with streams and fish and two approaching figures. Behind the 
god is the figure like Gilgamesh, with the mace. Very much the same is fig. 289; 
but here a bearded figure stands before the god, while a goddess (‘‘priestess”’) 


q MA 


i 


| Fe 





100 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


approaches from behind with the worshiper and his offering, and the attendant with 
the mace looks back to see them. ‘The scene in fig. 290 is peculiar in that opposite 
the seated god with streams sits the goddess Ishtar with clubs from her shoulders, 
a very rare figure, to be discussed in the chapter “Ishtar.”’ ‘The two attendant 
figures, one with a pail, both pay their respects to the goddess. 

We have two undoubted figures of the seated Sun-god Shamash, both from 
Sippara, and they may therefore be said to represent certainly the Sun-god of 
Sippara. Whether the sun-god of Larsa was a seated or a standing Shamash is not 
yet certain. Perhaps both forms were familiar all over Chaldea and Babylonia. 
The Shamash of Hammurabi’s law code (fig. 1271) agrees completely with the 
Shamash with rays of the cylinders we have been considering. He sits on a throne, 
and wears a horned turban, or tiara, a special emblem of a god and one often 
seen on the kudurrus or “boundary stones”’ representing Anu, Bel, and Ea. From 
his shoulders on each side arise solar rays, very different in character from the 
diverging lines that rise from the shoulders of Ishtar, and which are weapons. 
The god wears a four-horned turban and a long flounced garment and has a long 
beard. His feet rest on a series of imbrications, such as are usually made to repre- 
sent mountains. In his hand are the rod and ring, apparently separated, the mean- 













peer TI | 


] 
HL 


289 290 

ing of which it is not easy to divine, and which are carried by Ishtar as well as by 
Shamash. In front of the god stands the king, not “receiving the law,”’ as it has 
generally been described, in. memory of the way Moses received the tablets of the 
law from Jehovah on Mount Sinai, but in the ordinary attitude of worship. He 
wears a long simple garment, not flounced, and on his head is the close cap with a 
broad thick band, familiar in the Gudea sculptures, which we here see was still in 
use in the time of Hammurabi, perhaps five or six centuries later. Here the special 
attributes of the Sun-god are the rays, the rod and ring, and the hills under his feet. 

The other unquestionable figure of the seated Shamash is that in the famous 
stele of Nabu-abal-iddin, found at Abu-habba, the old Sippara of Shamash (fig. 
310). The god, in his five-horned turban, his long beard, and his waving, rather 
than full-flounced, garment, sits on his throne which is ornamented with two 
figures of Eabani, such as frequently carry a large mace. Here their hands are 
lifted in a position to hold a mace or to operate the gates of the sun, which are 
possibly represented. The god holds in one hand his rod and ring, evidently 
separate. He sits under a canopy formed by the body of a serpent, whose head 
rests on the top of a column consisting of the trunk of a palm-tree, the fronded 
volutes of which indicate the origin of the Ionic capital, and similar fronds grow, 
as is usual with date-palms, from the bottom of the column. The emblem of the 
sun, with unmistakable streams alternating with rays, stands on the table before 


the god, and is held, or moved, by cords guided by two figures above. When this 


THE SEATED SHAMASH: WITH RAYS OR STREAMS. 101 


bas-relief was found by the Arab diggers they ran to Mr. Rassam, shouting that they 
had found Noah with his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet. In honor of the 
discovery Mr. Rassam killed an ox and made them a great feast. The accom- 
panying inscription says: “Image of the god Shamash, the great lord, dwelling 
in E-Barra, within Sippara.”’ In this case the rays about the god are absent and 
there is no indication of mountains. The only special attribute of the seated god 
is the rod and ring, but the god’s identity is assured by the accompanying inscrip- 
tion, as well as by the god’s disk on the table before him. 

We can have no doubt of the identity of the god with rays from his shoulders 
in the case of the cylinders figured in this chapter. That is sufficiently proved by 
the Shamash worshipped by Hammurabi, as well as indicated by his notched 
weapon and the gate associated with him. He is the same god who sits in judg- 
ment over the bird-man. ‘The procession of figures which approaches him usually. 
represents worshipers with offerings, although the presence of his consort Aa, or 
Malkat, as the last of the procession, so frequent in the cylinders of the next period, 
and whom we see on the Sippara stele of the Sun-god, might at first suggest that 
this was the scene of the judgment of the soul in the future world. The presence 
of the sign for Shamash in the oldest form on several of these cylinders is further 
almost conclusive evidence of the identity. 

But the question as to the identity of the seated god with streams will hardly 
admit a less assured answer, and it is beyond question Shamash. He carries the 
notched weapon of Shamash. We have seen, in figs. 270, 270a, that both rays and 
streams belong to the god. We shall observe that the standing Shamash receiving 
the bird-man (fig. 291) is surrounded by streams. The seated Shamash in judg- 
ment on the bird-man we shall also see to be regularly surrounded by streams and 
fish, and in one case also in a boat (fig. 293). If that is Shamash, then there can 
be little doubt that this is also Shamash. ‘This seated god with streams is also 
accompanied by the sign for Shamash (figs. 270, 279, 280, 282, 283). Further, the 
general composition of the scenes on these cylinders with streams is the same as 
we see in those in which the god has only rays, with the same processions. At the 
same time too much weight must not be given to this fact. The argument against 
this being Shamash is presented by Heuzey, who connects these cylinders, also 
those in which the god holds in his hand a spouting vase, with Ea, the god of the 
waters (““Sceau de Goudéa’’). But for the discussion of this subject see the chapter 
on “The Spouting Vase.’’ My own conclusion is that, whether with or without 
rays, the seated god with streams is usually Shamash, although we shall find occa- 
sion later, in Chapter xvI, to observe that the seated god without rays or streams, 
a very generalized form, may be Ea or Sin. 

The approaching figures I take to be the worshiper, with or without a goat 
as offering and with or without a servant carrying further offerings in a pail, 
accompanied not by priests but by divine attendants, and especially by the god- 
dess Aa, or Malkat, the wife of Shamash. The identity of Aa will be considered in 
Chapter xxxt. It is as reasonable, as much in consonance with the religious notions 
of the Babylonians, that the wife and attendants on the god should be considered 
as present with the god, as that he should himself be considered not as an image, 
but as a real and living god. The worshiper comes before the god and not merely 
into his temple before an idol. 


CHAPTER XV. 


THE SUN-GOD AND THE BIRD-MAN. 


The Chaldean art differs from that of Egypt in that while the latter often 
shows us human bodies with the head of animals or birds, this is very exceptional 
in Chaldean art. Here, on the contrary, we see the human head and arms, with the 
lower body of a beast, a serpent, or a bird. We have had illustrations of this fact 
in Eabani, and shall see it in the serpent-bodied god (Chapter xvuir). We are 
now to consider those cylinders in which a human body is combined with the lower 
body, tail, and legs of a bird. 

We will first consider a very large cylinder (fig. 291), unfortunately much 
worn, belonging to the Metropolitan Museum. Three officers of the divine court 
have arrested the bird-man and are conducting him to a standing god. ‘The god is 
nearly nude, is bearded, and is surrounded by streams of water by the side of which 
are fishes. “The streams seem to burst from vases above the god’s shoulders. His 
foot is lifted on an elevation, which, as we have seen in Chapter XIII, represents 
the mountain from which the Sun-god rises. As we have seen that streams of water 
are also characteristic of the Sun-god, it seems certain that the god is Shamash. 





——— 


291 
Immediately in front of the god, leading the procession, is the chief of the officers, 
who holds two javelins, or clubs, over his shoulders. He is a bifrons, a peculiar 
convention acutely explained by Ménant (but questioned by Heuzey, “Origines 
Orientales de |’Art,” p. 77), who recognized that it was not intended to represent 
the personage as really having two faces, but as directing his attention both to the 
god whom he approached and also to the prisoner whom he was conducting to 
the god. In Eduard Meyer’s “Sumerier und Semiten in Babylonien,”’ p. 55, a 
bifrons is figured from a bas-relief. We shall see this simple convention shown in 
a number of other cylinders, even down to the time of the Hittite art. It had a 
very early origin and passed over to the Roman Janus. What was first a mere 
artistic convention came to be, we know not how early, a creature with two faces, 
a new god begotten by a naive drawing. Just so the unicorn had its origin in a 
bull drawn in profile with one horn showing; and the divine bull conquered by 
Gilgamesh may have had a similar artistic origin. We have numerous cases in 
which the attendant god, instead of courteously facing the chief seated god, 
102 


THE SUN-GOD AND THE BIRD-MAN. 103 


turns his head back toward the worshiper introduced. ‘The next figure marches 
forward holding in one hand a long spear, apparently, and a smaller club or jave- 
lin over his shoulder. Then follows the bird-man pushed forward by the fourth 
figure, who holds him by the head and the body. 

One other cylinder (fig. 292) gives a similar scene AC 
of a bird-man brought before the standing Shamash. 
Here his foot is not raised so high, but he 1s enveloped 
in streams and wears his two-horned cap. The bird- 
man is pushed forward by the second of the two ofh- 
cers, but the first is not a bifrons. Last of all is a worshiper with the goat as an 
offering. This is an old cylinder, but somewhat later than the preceding. 

These are the only two cases I know of in which we see the bird-man led to a 
standing god; in all other cases he is seated. But we must conclude that the seated 
god is the same Shamash, as we shall have abundant evidence to prove when we 
come to study the seated god in the next chapter. 

Another cylinder (fig. 293) from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum 
gives us an example of the most common form of this scene, that with the seated 
‘god; but it is unusual in that it represents the god 
as being seated within a boat, which we must 
imagine as sailing through the heavens. ‘This was a 
simpler and more natural way of conceiving the quiet 
passage of the sun along the sky than the Greek 
notion of a chariot drawn by horses. But also the 
literary sources tell us that the sun was conceived 
23 as sailing in a boat. In the epic of Gilgamesh the 
hero desires to cross the ocean to find his deceased friend Eabani. At the shore of 
the sea he finds the maiden Sabitu, who forbids his passage. He pleads with her to 
allow him to pass and find his friend Eabani, “who has become dust.” She tells him: 








O Gilgamesh, there has never been a ferry, 
And no one has ever crossed the ocean. 
Shamash, the hero, has crossed it; but except Shamash who can cross it ? 
Difficult is the passage, very difficult the path. 
Impassable the waters of death guarded by a bolt. 
Jastrow, “Religions,” p. 491. 


Whether it was the passage of the sun by night as he sinks into the western 
ocean, or by day also through the heavens, that was in the mind of the Chaldean 
poet may not be clear, but at least the Sun-god made his passage in a boat. 

There will be a temptation to connect the conception of the sun thus riding 
in a boat as having a common ethnic origin with the well-known and much developed 
Egyptian conception of the sun as thus borne by a boat. The Egyptians gave the 
sun two boats, one in which Ra was borne by day and another in which he was 
borne by night. We have pictures of the boat, and of Ra’s companions, and of 
the oars at the stern of the boat, and of the rope with which it was drawn, reminding 
us of the rope which moved the disk of the sun in the remarkable bas-relief of 
Abu-habba, where the sun’s daily journey through the heavens is not by a boat. 
But in a country of canals like Egypt and Babylonia, where nearly all carriage 
was by water, it would be as natural to think of the sun as thus borne as it would 


104 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


be in Greece to think of him as drawn by horses in a chariot. The code of Ham- 
murabi has much to say of the building of boats and nothing of the building of 
wagons. 

The bearded god in this seal wears a long, flounced garment and streams 
arise from his shoulders, along which appear several fish, that no one may mis- 
take the significance of the streams. Before the god is a star within a crescent. 
Two bearded figures approach, conducting between them a bird-man. ‘The first 
of the two oilicers has a short weapon in one hand, while the other seems to have 
seized the long queue of the bird-man. The latter has a long beard, the head, arms, 
and chest of a man, and the lower body, legs, and feet of a bird of prey. It is evi- 
dent that he is conducted by force and against his will. 





RO A 
all 








295 

An example of the more usual form is seen in fig. 294. The flounced, bearded, 
seated god has streams from his shoulders, and a shallow crescent (in the older 
art the crescent is usually shallow) is over his hand. A bifrons figure leads to him 
the bird-man, grasping him by the arm. The same figure is pushed forward by 
a second officer, who holds a club over his shoulder. Behind is a worshiper with a 
goat and a vertical asp, the head of which is lost through the wear of the stone. 

While the crescent is often put in to fill up the vacant space before the head of 
the god, it is not an essential element intended to indicate the identity of the god. 
This appears from fig. 295, where we have precisely the same design, except for 
the star which replaces the moon and the branch in the hand of the first approaching 
figure, who is not a bifrons. In fig. 293 we had both the crescent and the star. 

In fig. 296 we have the same general design, with the addition of a cypress- 
tree, which is not usually seen except on the cylinders of this early period. In fig. 
297 again we have the same design, except that the following worshiper, with a 
shaved head, carries his offering to the god in a bag over his shoulder, hanging 
from a staff. It is somewhat surprising that a cylinder in the Bibliothéque Nation- 
ale, No. 725, seems to have exactly the same design as this credited to the Museum 


THE SUN-GOD AND THE BIRD-MAN. 105 


in St. Petersburg by Lajard and said to be of white agate. Such identity is not to 
be expected. Besides, the cylinder in the Bibliothéque Nationale is the only one 
known to be made of a “composition of resin and sulphur,” according to Cham- 
bouillet’s Catalogue, and it is apparently of some such material and the hole is 
nearly filled with the composition, showing that it had never been worn. Further the 
design appears to be cut reversed from that in the St. Petersburg cylinder, as if it 
had been engraved from an impression on wax. ‘These facts make me question its 


genuineness. It may be after the style of the casts made by Tassie, “Catalogue of 
Gems 











In fig. 298 again the worshiper at the rear of the procession carries a goat as 
offering. And here again we see the streams and the fish of the seated god and 
the war-club of the second of the two officers. The streams proceed from the 
vase held in the god’s left hand. ‘The scene in fig. 299 differs mainly in the shape of 


the stream in front of the god. We observe the star and the two weapons in the 


held. 


SN 


Wiagaans 





UAONAUTTTTTIM 


aS Eee | ANY 4 











It is well to observe the cylinder shown in fig. 300 on account of a very curious 
little personage represented in the upper field behind the god. Here there are no 
streams about the god, but the little seated figure behind him appears to hold a 
vase, from the bottom of which there seems to flow a stream of water, while from 
the top there seems to rise a branch, or more likely a flame, toward which the seated 


figure holds his hand, as in fig. 399. Unfortunately this cylinder is very badly 


106 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


worn, so that it is not possible to make out the construction of the object under this 
little figure’s seat, or to interpret with accuracy what was intended to be represented. 

There is an extremely interesting variation of this design in fig. 287. In fig. 
297 one of the approaching figures carried on his shoulder a bag suspended from 
a stick. But in the former case the two approaching figures each carry such a 
stick over his shoulder, and from the first one hangs a bunch of dates and from 
the second the bird-man himself hangs suspended by his foot. These are preceded 
by the bifrons figure. It will be observed that while it is a plain stick from which 
the dates hang, the bird-man is suspended from a club. ‘The seated god is sur- 
rounded with streams. ‘This excellent cylinder is of black serpentine. 

A case in which the seated god has no streams is shown in fig. 300). We have 
the Janus-faced god with his club, and two attendants following the prisoner. The 
sun as a star, over the crescent, has been shown in fig. 293. A head and a turtle 
are given, and dots, which may possibly represent the numbers ten, twenty, and 
thirty, and the corresponding deities. But a more unusual case is that seen in fig. 
3004, like the last from the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, where the god has 
rays instead of streams, and his seat is made to represent a mountain. The god who 
introduces the culprit also has rays and is thus also a sun-god. But more peculiar 
and unique is the culprit, who is now not a bird-man, but has the head of a lion. 





ATT 
Z aifie 
ALT IY 











300° 


It has been usual to imagine that the bird-man, evidently a hostile being, is 
the Zu-bird, chiefly because the Zu-bird is represented as in conflict with the gods. 
The Elder Bel, or Enlil, held possession of the tablets of fate. Zu desired to have 
possession of them, and seized them from Enlil, snatching them from his hand 
while he was pouring out the brilliant waters. ‘The vase with the streams of water 
will be considered in Chapter xxxvuI. Suffice it to say here that Enlil was not 
usually considered the special god of the waters, but this function belonged to 
various deities. Possessed thus of supreme power Zu fled to the mountains. The 
gods were in consternation. Anu called first on Ramman, the Storm-god, to recover 
the tablets, but he was afraid. Other gods—the broken text fails to tell us who— 
in turn declined the task, but at last one of them accepted it and recovered them. 
Who it was is not clear from the fragmentary state of the text, possibly Shamash, 
but more likely, Jastrow thinks, Marduk. ‘There is, so far as the legend is preserved, 
no intimation that the Zu-bird was captured and brought to a god for judgment and 
punishment. 

We should naturally expect the seated god who pronounces judgment to be 
Shamash. He is the “ Judge of Gods and Men.” That is his characteristic title. 
The streams about the god, and in one case the rays, suggest Shamash. And yet 
we have no myth or story preserved in which we find the god performing this office. 
It is with the story of Etana and the Eagle, and of the serpent and the eagle, if the 


THE SUN-GOD AND THE BIRD-MAN. 107 


two belong to the same legend as Jastrow supposes, that Shamash is connected. 
The myth of Etana and the eagle is treated at length in Chapter xxu1. First Etana 
prays to Shamash for the plant of birth which will allow his wife to bring forth her 
child. “The extremely imperfect state of the tablets allows us here to learn simply 
that Shamash directed Etana to the mountain where the plant would be found. 
Etana’s companion, the eagle, seems to have assisted him in finding the plant. 
It appears to be in a subsequent portion of the story that the eagle tempts Etana 
to mount upon his back and be carried to the heaven of Anu, Bel, and Ea. Then 
they ascend higher to the realm of Ishtar. But this displeases the gods, or perhaps 
Ishtar, and before reaching her abode they are hurled downward. What becomes 
of them is not told in the fragments preserved; but the eagle does not seem to have 
been killed, for we find his fate described in another fragment, that which tells 
of the feud between the eagle and the serpent. Here the eagle seems to have lost 
the favor of the gods, which is given to the serpent. The eagle, having for some 
reason a spite against the serpent, consumes its brood. ‘Thereupon the serpent 
appeals to Shamash and begs the Sun-god to catch the eagle in his all-embracing 
net. Shamash bids the serpent hide himself in the body of a wild ox, and when the 
eagle should come to feed on its flesh the serpent was to seize him. The story tells 
how this was accomplished and the eagle seized. ‘The eagle begged for mercy, 
which is refused. His wings and feathers are torn off and he is left to die, at least 
presumably so, inasmuch as that is what Shamash directed the serpent to do. 

This story shows evident signs of having been edited and changed from its 
original form by the priests who arranged it in the recension which has come down 
tous. It is clear that while it is the revenge of the serpent which has accomplished 
the will of the god, it is yet the “net” of Shamash which captured and would seem to 
have slain the eagle. The close connection here between Shamash and the eagle— 
and in one fragment we learn that Shamash spoke to the eagle—makes it appear 
quite likely that it was the eagle of Etana which was brought before Shamash, rather 
than the Zu-bird, whose relations were not at all with Shamash. For I think there 
is no doubt that the seated god with streams and fish is Shamash. He is the same 
god whom we saw standing in fig. 291 and clothed with all the specific attributes 
of the rising sun, the god whose special office it was to judge offenders, whether 
gods or men. We may have here another type of the legend from that which is 
given in the texts as published by George Smith, E. ‘T. Harper, and Jastrow, one 
in which the eagle was not slain immediately, but was disarmed and brought for 
judgment to the Sun-god, usually led by two captors, but in one case swung by his 
foot from the club of his captor. We must not forget, however, that in fig. 300a it is 
a lion-headed culprit that is led for judgment to Shamash. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


THE SEATED GOD WITH APPROACHING FIGURES. 


We have seen in Chapter xv the seated Shamash with the bird-man led to him 
for judgment. We have also seen the seated Shamash with rays or streams, or 
both, in Chapter x1v; and also the seated Shamash on the Abu-habba bas-relief 
(fig. 310), as also on the Hammurabi stele (fig. 1271). We now come to consider 
another series of representations of a seated god, usually not to be distinguished by 
any accessories or emblems from the Shamash of the Abu-habba figure, but, like 
that, without streams or rays. That this design, which appears in the older art, 
and continues through the Middle Empire, always represented Shamash is not at 
all clear. Indeed, there is reason to regard him as sometimes Sin, or sometimes 
Ningirsu, or some other important divinity of the male sex. ‘The reason is clear. 
The Babylonian art was extremely limited in its types of the human figure. The 
figure of the seated male god was always the same. It was a dignified figure, in a 
long garment, usually flounced, with a horned turban, either two-horned or many- 





horned (braided), and with a long beard and one hand lifted, perhaps holding a 
vase, or a rod and ring. The varieties of attitude in the standing god were more, 
but still very restricted. We can by no means be sure when we see a seated god 
that it is Shamash, although the presumption is strong that it is this god favored 
more than any other in worship. 

Further, the approach of one or more worshipers to a god is the most natural 
and frequent of designs. Usually there is more than one approaching figure. Such 
is the case in fig. 301, a cylinder included here as showing a transition form. 
There are no streams about the god, but there are two fishes in front of him. The 
naked worshiper carries a goat, while the female servant with the pail is clothed. 
Usually this condition of clothing is reversed. ‘The simplest form of this design is 
seen when the single worshiper stands before the god, either with or without a goat 
carried in his arms as a sacrifice. An example of this is seen in fig. 302. This is 
an early, black serpentine cylinder, concave, and shows us a bearded god in a 
flounced garment, in a two-horned cap, holding a beaker in his hand. Between him 
and the worshiper is a perfectly plain altar, and behind the worshiper is a palm-tree 

108 


THE SEATED GOD WITH APPROACHING FIGURES. 109 


with fruit. The worshiper holds one hand lifted in worship, and on the other arm 
he carries a goat. ‘The crescent is of the flat style more frequent in the early art. 
In later cylinders the crescent is nearer a half-circle. Another case of a single figure 
before the god is shown in fig. 303. This is a royal cylinder, although the date of 
Ankisari, King of Ganhar, is not known. The style of the cylinder would indicate 
that it is as old as Gudea. 





But more usually there are two, three, or four figures approaching the god. 
Very frequently the worshiper, commonly the second of them, is led to the god by 
the hand held by a female figure, while a similar female figure may follow, and, 
perhaps, immediately behind the worshiper will be a servant, often nude, carrying 
a pail or basket for an offering. The nudity characterizes the slave condition. 
This explains the biblical language where it is said (I Kings 21: 21) that the Lord 
would cut off from the house of Ahab every one that urinates against the wall, 
meaning slaves. Saul, as a man of rank, “covered his feet”’ in the cave, I Sam. 24: 3. 
These have been called by Ménant the cylinders of the School of Ur, because some 
of them bear the name of a king of Ur. A remarkable cylinder of this class is shown 





3034 
in fig. 303a, already included as that of Ur-Engur among the royal cylinders in Chap- 
ter 111. This cylinder shows the high-water mark of its period. Its genuineness has 
been questioned without good reason, but has been abundantly proved. ‘The ox’s 
leg of the god’s seat and also the back of the seat are unusual, but not unique. 
We observe also that the god’s headdress is of the style worn by kings in the Gudea 
period, a very plain and low turban. The shape of the crescent 1s also that which 
prevailed at a later period. The god, who holds no vase, extends his hand with a 
gesture which must indicate kindly reception of the worshiper. ‘The worshiper, 
between the two female figures, is shaven and beardless, as in the Tello sculptures, 
a condition which may indicate a ritual purpose. We know that among the ancient 


110 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Jews the head was shaved in case of vows. He holds up one hand in token of 
worship, while the other is held by the female figure who also holds up one hand 
while grasping with the other the wrist of the worshiper. Her garment is flounced 
and on her head is the high and pointed turban or crown worn by the gods. The 
last figure in the group wears the same headdress, but a simple garment, and holds 
up both hands in the attitude of worship. 

1f Winckler is right in the interpretation of his translation of the accompany- 
ing inscription the seated figure may not be a god at all, but the King Ur-Engur; 
yet it is more likely to be a god. He thus translates (“Keilinsch. Bib.,” 11, p. 81) 
“(To thee, O) Ur-Engur, Mighty hero, King of Ur, Hashhamir (has dedicated this), 
patesi of (the city) Ishkun-Sin, thy servant.”” ‘The shape of the headdress worn 
by the seated figure seems to suggest a king rather than a god, and yet we must 
remember that the richest kind of headdress known would be worn by both kings 
and gods. ‘The dress of the gods was patterned after that of the early kings. I 
can not doubt that this is a god. It is to be observed that about this time the 
fashion began to shave the head and beard, doubtless for cleanliness, to avoid 
infestation of lice, just as ointment was also used in Palestine where shaving was 


aad 
aati 
im 


AT) 
Ta 
te cain7 





forbidden. This may have coincided with the introduction of bronze knives in 
place of stone. It is to be observed that the gods were never shaven, perhaps 
because they could not be imagined to need such protection. 

Similar is fig. 52a from an impression on a tablet in the Louvre. It is remark- 
able for the lion on the seat and the lion holding a standard behind the god. The 
lion properly belongs to the goddess Ishtar, or possibly Bau. We may consider 
this as perhaps representing the king Gimil-Sin, whose name we find preceded on 
cylinders by the sign of divinity, showing that even in his lifetime a king of Ur 
was regarded as a god, like some of the Roman Emperors. ‘This will explain the 
fact that the seated god wears the royal headdress, and not the horned headdress 
which belongs to a god. We may question whether the artist in his difficult task 
of copying from the impression on the tablet has properly inclosed Venus instead 
of the sun within the crescent of the moon. 

That this style was in favor at Ur about this time is seen in fig. 304, another 
royal seal, of Gimil-Sin, King of Ur. Here we have the same seated god, the same 
shaven worshiper led by the hand by the same flounced female figure. A notice- 
able point, apart from the inscription, is the shape of the very graceful two-handled 
vase which the god holds in his hand. ‘The inscription reads, according to Winckler, 
“Gimil-Sin, mighty hero, king of Ur, king of the four regions; Gal-Anna-.. . 
the scribe, son of Hi... . , thy servant.” 


THE SEATED GOD WITH APPROACHING FIGURES. 111 


The cases in which a personage is led by the hand to the seated god are not 
as frequent as those in which the chief or only worshiper is not led, and yet they are 
not rare. ‘They appear, in the best examples, to be of the Gudea period, although 
we have them earlier and later. There are seldom more than these two figures 
before the god. It is also to be observed that the cases are quite rare in which the 
worshiper carries a goat as offering; usually he simply lifts one hand while led by 
the other. Such a case we have in fig. 305. Here the god, whose beard seems lost 
in the abrasion of the head, carries the rod, or long, slender wedge, with the ring. 
Before him is the crouched figure like a monkey (lion?), and behind, under the 
inscription “Shamash, Aa,” is a lion or dog. 


Ny 


a le A\ Ls 

a rial ; Pa 
Vly : 
[nga : 
ee es ee ee Ne \ 





One of the more unusual cases in which there are other approaching figures 
following the worshiper led by the hand, and also in which a goat is being carried 
to a bearded god, is seen in fig. 307. This is a large, black serpentine cylinder of 
a period earlier than Gudea. Here the god is distinguished from his worshiper 
only by the flounced garment. His two-horned headdress is the same as that of 
the two first approaching figures. Behind them are two other figures, the first of 
which carries the sacrificial goat. He is bareheaded and lifts up a hand in rever- 
ence. He would seem to be a servant attending on the led figure, who probably 
represents the owner of the seal. The last tue oan Yeates Pace 2) in the procession may be feminine, 








307 
and corresponds to what appears to be the usually flounced goddess Aa, often seen 
with Shamash; but here her hands are not raised but held to her breast. Noticeable 
on this cylinder are the two weapons, one a dagger before the god, the other a battle- 
ax behind the led figure. The crescent is not unusual on the older cylinders and 
here it is seen in the older, very flat form, before the head of the god. 

A very neat little cylinder of the more usual type, that of the Gudea period, is 
shown in fig. 306. Here the goddess, like Aa, wife of Shamash, leads in the wor- 
shiper, who is shaved in the style frequent at that period. In the field above is 
the sun in the crescent, and below a bird, perhaps a goose, a bird much honored 
in Egypt and often seen on the cylinders, but in early Chaldean art more usually 


with the goddess Bau-Gula. 


112 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Probably hardly older than Gudea is the cylinder shown in fig. 308. It is of 
gray serpentine and excellently engraved. The bearded god and the approaching 
goddess have a flounced garment and a high headdress. The led figure is shaven 
and shorn. Under the inscription, which tells us the cylinder belonged to a mer- 
chant named Ur-Nusku, is a bull couchant. 








. 308 309 
For another illustration of the led worshiper compare fig. 309, where we have 
an unusual collection of creatures, a lion, a crane (in fig. 231 it looked, as often, 
like a goose), a rampant, winged monster, and the eagle of Lagash, as also a seated, 
naked figure. The eagle of Lagash is seen on a pole on the cylinder of Urlama, 
patesi of Tello, seen in fig. 39a, where we also see the figure of a goddess rising, as 
it were, with the stream out of a spouting vase. 


iy I ey SPY er] 
RAE SISER EET 


Peer cl Pe 
SSS 


SS 


ae 


MESES Pisce 


kek 


SS 


bof = 
Sepen suse tereriaas: 
SSS SSS 


<t 
SSSs5 
RSS 


=F 
FJ) 


RSET BS 
4S re ty 





ete 


310 

It is easily seen that the design in these cylinders is precisely the same as in 
the two remarkable cases in which the seated Shamash is figured in bas-reliefs, 
the stele of Sippara (Abu-habba) (fig. 310), and that of 
Hammurabi on which he inscribed his civil code (fig. 1271), 
also from Sippara, where the Sun-god had a famous temple. 
In these cases the accompanying inscription leaves no doubt 
of the identity of the god. 

More usually the worshiping figure is not led, but 





311 
approaches, often following a guide, usually a female figure, like Aa. Occasionally, 


as in fig. 311, we have only the seated god and the worshiper. More usually the 


THE SEATED GOP WITH APPROACHING FIGURES. 113 


worshiper stands before the god; and behind him, as in fig. 312, stands the figure 
referred to the goddess Aa, wife of Shamash. In the case of this cylinder, which 
much resembles fig. 305, as very frequently with this type, there is the simple 
inscription “Shamash, Aa.”’ The accessories are the dog under the inscription, 
the sun in the crescent, and the vase of Aquarius over the object which usually 
accompanies it, and which may provisionally be called the balance, or libra, although 
it is very doubtful if such it is. Much like this is fig. 313, except that a squatting 
figure and a sitting dog or lion take the place of the dog. A similar scene appears 
with different accessories in fig. 314, where the bearded god holds a vase, and we 
have two small figures of a personage like Gilgamesh, in front view, one of which 
is kneeling and has the streams from his shoulders. But this figure has been 
discussed in Chapter xt. 










Gauu. 
TIT 
Wo 










\ 


Eo, “Wy = 





We have given above (fig. 304) what is evidently a royal cylinder of a period 
quite as early as Gudea, in which the worshiper is led by the hand to the bearded 
god. In that case the inscription was illegible. In fig. 315 we have one of a similar 
age, a royal cylinder of which the inscription is fortunately preserved, but here 
the worshiper simply stands before the god, followed by the flounced goddess whom 
we call Aa. The inscription reads: 


Bur-Sin, mighty King, King of Sumer and Akkad ; 
Amel-Bel, the scribe, son of Shar. . . . his servant. 


Bur-Sin belonged to the second dynasty of Ur, and his date has been set at about 
2700 or 2800 B.C. This cylinder is cut with great nicety in a red jasper with black 
streaks and is concave on the face. The god in a garment not flounced, and wear- 
ing the close cap with a band, as in the Gudea sculptures, sits on a stool covered 
with a fringed cloth and holds a vase in his hands. ‘The worshiper has his hands 
on his breast and is followed by the goddess with uplifted hands, whose headdress 
is high and horned. 

There are much older cylinders of this type. Such a one is shown in fig. 316, 
a shell cylinder in fair preservation. This is one of those whose thickness, as usual 

8 


114 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


in the oldest cylinders, will allow of a number of figures. The seated god and the 
four other figures are all flounced and all wear the two-horned hat. Each of the 
three before the god lifts his hand in worship, while the attendant of the god stand- 
ing behind him holds his hands on his breast. Another old and unfortunately 
much worn cylinder of green serpentine, and concave on the face, is shown in fig. 
317. In this case two figures approach the god; a third, nude except for the girdle, 
apparently like Gilgamesh and holding the staff with a semicircle described in 
Chapter Lx1x, stands behind the god as his attendant. A cypress-tree is in the 










AAMT 
HT 





LY 









f == 
= =| Ti 1 cM 








Tim Be 


Sp ITM (4 Jom 









< [2 My, 

i A TIT op LU. BA 7 

= : ASE SOIT op Wee 

j S Gy A <als MO Vv N= 

Tit Tim.) a 7 Ae ane Wy ie J) iW (Fa 
320 321 


field, but what is most noticeable is the bull apparently leaping into the god’s lap. 
We have a similar case of the bull before the god in fig. 318. He appears to be 
leaping into the god’s lap, as in the last case. ‘The other figures are a serpent, an 
eagle (or vulture), and a lion in the midst of a swamp of reeds. 

An extremely interesting and quite unique variation of this scene appears in 
fig. 319. It is an elaborate scene and the cylinder is extremely well engraved in 
the best style of the Gudea period. Here the bearded god, in his flounced dress 
and his high hat, holds in his hand what is doubtless meant to represent the notched 
weapon carried usually by the standing Shamash. ‘The approaching worshiper 
offers a goat. His garment is not flounced and his headdress is the close cap with 
a thick band familiar in the statuary of the Gudea period. Behind him is the goddess 
with hands lifted. Before the god is the crescent, a full half-circle, and before the 
goddess are the three large dots that seem to designate the number thirty, the number 
of the Moon-god. ‘The two other figures form a second scene, to be separated 


THE SEATED GOD WITH APPROACHING FIGURES. 115 


from the first. We seem to see the same worshiper and the same goddess embracing 
each other with one arm while the worshiper, or owner of the seal, holds out his 
other hand in token of petition. Behind the head of the seated god is a bare-shaven 
head, such as the Gudea sculptures show. ‘This cylinder is of especial value, 
inasmuch as it can hardly be doubtful that the two figures in the second scene are 
the same as the two in the first scene standing before the god, 
and their attitude of both affection and worship, the female figure 
protecting the male, indicates that the female figure, with which 
we are so familiar, is a goddess and not a mere temple priestess. 

We have observed that in the last scene the seated god 
carries the notched sword of Shamash. This is 
unmistakable in fig. 320. The god sits on a seat 
with a high back, which is quite an unusual thing §& 
(but see fig. 303a), and the seat itself is so made 
as to suggest the conventional way of representing 
mountains. He has a flounced garment, a high 
headdress, holds in his hand the notched sword 
of Shamash, and has his feet on the back of a human-headed bull, which seems to 
be precisely the same as that in both stone and incrusted bronze figured in Heuzey’s 
“Catalogue des Antiquités Chaldéennes, pp. 269, 287 (see fig. 322). Before the 
god stands the worshiper in the close turban with the thick band carrying a goat, 
and behind him is the goddess Aa. Before the god is the circle of the sun inclosed 
in the crescent, and behind him, over a dog, unless it be a lion, is the inscription 
which gives the names of the two deities, “Shamash, Aa.” Here, again, not only 
the inscription but still more the notched sword indicates that the god is Shamash. 

In fig. 321, a standing god, we can not be certain who, has his feet on two of 
these human-headed bulls, while a worshiper offers a goat. A seated deity rests 
his feet on an animal whose appearance suggests that this is Marduk, while a 
flounced goddess stands before him. ‘The spaces are crowded with three other 
small figures of gods, of whom we recognize the naked Zirbanit. ‘There ts also the 
symbol of Adad. The scattered inscription seems to read: 







NOU 39/7 


————— 
= 





















Pes 


ice 


D. P. Gishtin (God) Gishtin 
A duni My lord 
Mar son of 
D. P. Shamash (God) Shamash 
Arad Rammani. Servant of Ramman (Adad). 


The name Gishtin stands next to the standing god on two human-headed bulls, 
and the name Shamash next to the seated god; but this gives nothing more than a 
suggestion that the standing god is Gishtin and the seated god is Shamash. ‘The 
owner professes himself servant of Adad, whose symbol appears on the seal. In 
fig. 323 we once more have the human-headed bull as a foot-rest for a god whose 
dress and attitude are those of Shamash and who holds the rod and ring often carried 
by Shamash. A worshiper pours a libation from one cup to another, and the god- 
dess Aa stands behind. 

So far as we know, the notched weapon is peculiar to Shamash, unless we are 
mistaken in supposing the seated god to be Shamash in the two last designs. 
Another emblem which we know belongs to Shamash (although it also belongs 


116 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


to a goddess) is the rod and circle; for this is what Shamash holds in his hand in 
the famous stele of Abu-habba (fig. 310). The seated god on the cylinders 1s also 
sometimes represented as bearing this emblem. In fig. 324 the god, again in the 
high-horned hat, sits on a peculiar seat, the dots in the lower part of which suggest 
mountains, while the middle is a composite animal, to be discussed in Chapter XXvIl, 
on Marduk, to whom it properly belongs. There are the two usual approaching 
figures, the sun in the crescent, a small female figure, apparently a goddess, a club, 
and a curious bowlegged figure holding over his head what may be possibly a 
monkey. It may be that this last is a later, but not modern addition. In another 
cylinder (fig. 325) we see perhaps the same animal under the feet of the god, and 
the goat-fish before him, while behind him is the occasional scene of two naked figures 








A 


S 









Face ATH/AN 





|__—_———} 
WLLL ZZ 

















TIL 









PLZZ 


wrestling. The goat-fish is the emblem of Ea. The animal under the feet of the 
god may indicate that he is either Marduk or Nebo. Another seal, which shows 
the seated god holding in his hand the same rod and circle, is seen in fig. 326. The 
god and the worshiper are precisely the same as in the last case, but the god’s seat 
is different, and the other accessories are missing, except the crescent. Yet another 
case of the rod and circle held by the god is seen in fig. 327. This is one of a very 
small number of cylinders in which the texture of the flounced garments is repre- 
sented as in tufts. The god sits with a bull under his feet, and another above his 
hand, while behind him is a third bull. The other figures, apart from the proces- 
sion, do not need to be here discussed. Another cylinder in which the bull is an 
accessory is seen in fig. 328, where it is put under the filiary inscription. 

Another example of this perhaps most frequent of all the designs on the cylinders 
of the Middle Empire is seen in fig. 329, where, besides the three usual figures and 
the sun within the crescent, we have also the vertical serpent. In fig. 330 we have 
more accessories, the three large dots behind the god, the vase over the “ balance,”’ 


THE SEATED GOD WITH APPROACHING FIGURES. 17 


the sun in the crescent, what appears to be a lion, or goat, as if climbing into the 
god’s lap, and a figure, which would seem to be Gilgamesh in profile, fighting a 
gazelle-like animal, more likely meant for the oryx, but a later owner has here 
effaced an original inscription, replacing it with this conflict. In both the latter 
cases the god wears not the high-pointed hat but the low-banded turban. Both 
the three dots and the small animal which in the last case looked like a lion, but 
which in other cases looks more like a jackal or a monkey, appear in fig. 331, in 
connection with the seated god in the low-banded turban. Fig. 332 again gives 


M| <2 
[X Kc p 
\ al 


ir 
fi 


yun 










\\ 











IY WO 
TO 


Lee A DN al ive an hI 





i 





Nt 


Re 

MMU 
——— = 
ee 

GPE L, 


ANN 





7 m 
KUTT TN 
TTT) 


is 


SS 
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pelea 














333 335 
us the same animal before the seated god, and also the bird between the goddess 


and the led worshiper. The five lines of inscription, which have historical value, 
read: “Hu-uku-ili, patest of Mash, Governor of Madka, since he crushed Unu, 
the servant of Zr1n1.”—Price. 

The animal appears alone, again without the three dots of fig. 330, in figs. 333 
and 334. We see the three dots again in fig. 335, and also the scorpion and the rod 
surmounted by the vase and the two serpents, which we know as the Babylonian 


caduceus. In fig. 336 the thr 





but also between the worshiper and the following goddess. ‘The vase, in its older 
form, over the “balance” will be observed. Here the god mentioned in the inscrip- 
tion is Ninib. Another cylinder (fig. 337) has but two dots behind the god’s chair, 
which may indicate the number twenty, for Shamash, as three dots may represent 
the number thirty for Sin. Here, however, the god does not seem to wear the usual 
high turban of Shamash, but the low turban with a band or roll of rope to hold it. 
There is the single worshiper, the goddess like Aa, the vase and “balance,” and a 
rampant goat. In fig. 338 we have before the god a jackal or monkey-like animal 
on a stand, and a god like Adad leads a bull. Of the time of Gudea, this is an early 
example of Adad with the bull. 





118 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


A cylinder of this general type, but of the particular style of a period antedating 
Gudea, or even Sargon I., is shown in fig. 339. ‘This is of serpentine, and is impor- 
tant, as it not only shows the earlier form of the crescent, but because it bears the 
name of the god Shamash, such as we have seen it on the cylinders showing Shamash 
rising over the Eastern mountains. Another, not quite so old, but yet apparently 
as old as the earlier dynasties of Ur, appears in fig. 340. Fig. 341 is decidedly 


— 








339 
archaic. Here the god appears to be shut in a pavilion, the door to which is being 
opened by an attendant, so that the approaching deity with rays can lead the wor- 
shiper following to his presence. Another archaic cylinder (fig. 342) shows us the 
seated, flounced god and four identical, approaching figures, each with the hand 
lifted and carrying a wand, and all, like the 
god, in a two-horned hat. Fig. 343 is another 
very archaic cylinder. The seated god holds 
a club or scepter and another deity leads the 
worshiper, who carries a goat and is followed 
by a slave with a pail. An altar appears to be 
before the god. 

A cylinder of unusual significance is shown in fig. 344. Here the goat-fish, 
or Capricorn, is placed under the seat of the god. Now we know, as will appear 
later, that the goat-fish is the symbol of Ea; and we may conclude with confidence 
that in this case the seated god represents Ea. 











pas YB A 


AAA fhe 


Attention has been called in the case of fig. 327 to the tufted garment worn 
by the personages. In fig. 345 we have a similar style of drawing the garments. 
Here the seated god carries not exactly the rod and ring, but what must correspond 
to it, and looks more like a slender wedge, while the ring appears solid, like a ball. 
But this seal is interesting for another reason. It is unusually full of figures. Behind 
the seated god is a goddess, in front view, and with heavy ear-rings; Gilgamesh 
stands also in front view, and nude. But, more important, is the figure of the 
standing, bearded god holding a vase, the streams from which fall into a vase on 
the ground, while before him is the goat-fish. As will be shown in the chapter on 
the spouting vase, this suggests Ea, god of the waters. If it be Ka, the seated god 





THE SEATED GOD WITH APPROACHING FIGURES. 119 


can hardly be Ea in this cylinder, although we have found Ea indicated by the 
goat-fish with the seated god in figs. 325, 344. Yet the spouting vase seems to be 
brought into some kind of connection with the seated god in several cylinders. 
Such a case we have seen in fig. 314. 

It may be mentioned here that a small squat, or dancing, figure now and then 
appears before the god, as in figs. 324, 336 and also in fig. 346. In this case we also 
have the dog (or lion) under the frequent inscription “Shamash, Aa.” 





The presence of heads without the body is not frequent, though occasional. 
We have an interesting cylinder of this type in fig. 34.7, where, beside the approach- 
ing figure followed by the goddess, we are shown four heads in front view, with 
the horns which would seem to indicate that they represent deities or demigods 
like Gilgamesh. The importance of the monkey-like figure is indicated by the 
mounting of it on a standard before the seated god. 

With these illustrations before us, which give a pretty complete idea of the 
designs and accessories of the seated god with approaching or led figures, we are 
ready to consider the difficult question who the god is, thus represented. We must 
remember that these are not simply archaic cylinders, but they represent a type 
which maintained itself with great aoe tela in the Gudea period and much later. 


NS LAWS 
ws COUT i 
Tl UT or Ay TL tt ml Dm I 


It has become thoroughly conventionalized. We must also remember how few 

are the types of gods, and that the seated god may represent, possibly, any one of 

half a dozen or more deities. It is only when some emblem or attribute is designated 

that we can be at all positive which god is intended. Indeed any king on his throne 

would be represented, and is represented, in the same way, down into the Assyrian 
eriod. 

: The following considerations will help us to decide what god is represented: 

1. We are already informed that the seated god often is Shamash. Such we 
have him expressly designated on the bas-relief of Abu-habba and by the figure 
over the code of Hammurabi, and such we have found him to be when provided 
with rays or streams, or both. The first presumption is that the god is Shamash. 

2. In fig. 339 we have the archaic designation of Shamash on the cylinder. 

3. This conclusion is confirmed when, as in figs. 319, 320, the god carries in 
his hand the peculiarly shaped notched weapon of Shamash. There can then be no 
further doubt, as no other god carries this weapon. 





120 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


4. The rare case in which, as in fig. 301, fish without streams are placed by 
the god is in all probability to be assigned to Shamash. 

5. The frequency of the cases in which the inscription “Shamash, Aa’’ occurs 
is a presumptive indication that the seated god usually is Shamash. It is true that 
other gods’ names are occasionally found, even without the name of the owner of 
the seal and with no indication that the owner is a worshiper of a particular god. 
There may be nothing else but the name of one or two gods, taking the place of 
the usual filiary inscription, but this is hardly any evidence that the god so named 
is the same as is figured. It is only the prevalence of a god’s name that suggests 
that he is also figured. 

6. We know that in the Abu-habba stele the rod and ring carried in the hand 
are the symbol of Shamash. When, therefore, we see these objects in the hand of 
the seated god on the cylinders, the presumption is that the god is Shamash. Inas- 
much, however, as a goddess also sometimes carries the same objects we can not 
regard this as a certain indication. 

7. Where the goat-fish, which appears to be a particular symbol of Ea, is 
figured under the god’s seat (fig. 344) or in front of his body (fig. 325), there is 
reason to believe that the god is Ea. 

8. That the seated god may be Sin is proved by the cylinder shown in fig. 1272, 
where we actually see the name of Sin engraved by his figure, as well as the names 
of two other gods also figured. 

g. In the case of a royal cylinder from Ur there is a strong presumption that 
the god is Sin and the presence of the crescent before the god’s head is a support 
to the presumption. Yet too much must not be made of this, as the crescent may 
be meant to be the suggestion of a different god from the one figured, an addi- 
tional protector, just as where both the sun and moon are drawn realistically, and 
perhaps the star of Ishtar also. 

10. The presence of three large dots in connection with the seated god can 
not but suggest that it is the god Thirty or Sin that is figured. 

11. For a similar reason Ningirsu is to be expected in the seated god of the 
period when Lagash (Shirpurla) was flourishing. It is beyond reasonable question 
Ningirsu that is represented on a bas-relief (fig. 348). Except that the god’s face 
is in front view this is only a larger form of the seated god on the cylinders. Heuzey 
compares with this bas-relief of Ningirsu an impression from a cylinder (fig. 421), 
which, however, I suspect is not correctly drawn by the artist, and where the seated 
deity may be really a goddess; certainly the beard on the standing deity is a mistake. 

12. In two of the cylinders figured (figs. 324, 325) a slender-necked, grotesque 
animal lies under the bull or under the seat of the god. This must bear some 
relation to the god and would seem to be one of his emblems. He bears the rod 
and ring, which is also an emblem of Shamash, though not exclusively his. We have 
no other evidence that this animal is emblematic of Shamash, and, indeed, it resem- 
bles the animal which in the kudurrus we find under the seat or spear-head of 
Marduk. But I should hesitate to assign these gods to Marduk, especially as they 
seem to be older than the popular cult of Marduk. Before the god, in fig. 325, is 
the goat-fish that belongs to Ea, and this may be Ea, although we have only this 
evidence that the long-necked animal can be emblematic of Ea. It may belong 
to Marduk’s predecessor, Enlil. 


THE SEATED GOD WITH APPROACHING FIGURES. 121 


13. In the case of two cylinders (figs. 317, 318) we have seen the bull apparently 
leaping into the lap of the god; in another case (fig. 327) we have the bull under 
the god’s feet, and in yet others (figs. 320, 323) it is a bull with a human face on 
which the god’s feet rest. ‘The bull is the regular accompaniment of Ramman, 
but that god is represented as standing, and leading a bull by a cord through his 
nose, as we shall see in Chapter xxx. The Moon-god Sin, or Nannar, is called the 
powerful bull of ‘“‘Anu”’ (Jastrow, “Religion,” p. 89), 
doubtless in reference to his horns (ib., p. 76). Ina { os 
hymn to Sin (Nannar) the moon is called “Strong bull, an = 
great of horns, perfect in form, with long flowing beard, of h 
bright as lapis-lazuli” (Jastrow, ‘“‘Religion,” p. 303). ("i 
It is not at all unlikely that, as often suggested, the y i 
seated god with the two horns on his turban, and the \ * 
crescent before him, may be Sin at times, and is likely 
to be so when the bull is represented in close connec- 
tion with him. It must not be forgotten, however, that 
Marduk is the Taurus of the zodiac. Yet the cylinders 
in which we see the bull leaping into the god’s lap, as 
also those in which the crescent is before the bearded 
god, are far older than Hammurabi, in whose reign 
Marduk emerged from local obscurity as a minor god J 
and took the place of Bel. It might be, however, that Vg 
the Marduk-Taurus of the Zodiac is a substitution for the earlier Enlil-Taurus, or 
Sin-Taurus. It would be helpful if we could assign to Sin the representations in 
which the seated god has the low, two-horned turban, and assign to Shamash those 
in which the higher pointed turban is given; but this is not at all clear. The case 
of fig. 320 is hardly to be counted with those in which the bull indicates another 
god than Shamash. Here the bull, at the god’s footstool, is human-headed; the 
god holds the notched weapon of Shamash in his hand; he sits on what looks like 
a mountain made into a chair; and behind him is the inscription “Shamash, Aa.” 
We must then presume that here the god, in a high turban, not the more usual 
moon-like, two-horned turban, is really Shamash. 

14. A similar problem is raised by fig. 327. Here a bull is the god’s footstool 
and a second crouched bull is in front of his head. But he carries the rod and circle 
which we know are carried by Shamash, and which seem to represent peculiar 
authority, like the tablets of the fates; his turban is of the high several-horned 
style; and behind him, under the sun in the crescent, is an animal, apparently a 
gazelle. In this case the indication, notwithstanding the bull under the god’s feet, 
would point to Shamash rather than Sin or any other god. 

15. The number of cases are too many to be passed without notice in which 
before the seated god there is a crouched vertical or rampant slender animal not 
easy to identify, but looking like a short-tailed monkey or a jackal. ‘The attitude 
is the same as that of the gazelle in the cylinder last considered, but it 1s without 
horns. We see examples in figs. 305, 330, 331, 347. In fig. 331 there are also 
the three large dots that seem to indicate Sin, so that we might be inclined to suppose 
that this animal is an adjunct of Sin, but this is by no means sure. In fig. 330 the 
head of the animal looks more like that of a lion, but it is impossible, at present, 





—<——S 


eae SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


to identify the animal or to tell what god it belongs to, if any. But in fig. 332 it is 
evidently a goat. 

The general conclusion from the study of the cylinders which give us one or 
more figures approaching a god without rays or streams, whether led by the hand 
or not, is that generally the god is Shamash, who was the most popular, the most 
worshiped, of all the gods of the Babylonian pantheon. His worship was not 
local, but general. It was his image that Hammurabi himself, devoted as he was 
to Marduk, put at the top of the stele which he set up at Sippara and on which 
he inscribed his laws, and before whom he approaches in the attitude of worship 
usual on these cylinders. It is probable, however, that other gods were also repre- 
sented as seated and receiving worship, and particularly that Sin is so represented 
when accompanied by his special emblems, and Ea when accompanied by his 
emblem of the goat-fish. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


THE GODDESS WITH WINGED GATE AND BULL. 


We have already seen, in Chapter v, that in the most primitive period of Chal- 
dean art a gate is sometimes represented, together with figures of seated deities. 
We have also seen one case (fig. 80) repeated here (fig. 349), in which the gate has 
wings. We now have to collect and consider the cases in which the winged gate 
becomes the central object in the composition, with a seated deity on one side, and 
on the other either a second seated deity or a kneeling worshiper, while in front of 
the gate or under the gate is a bull crouched on its bent knees. Of these cylinders, 














7 o/ 4 
— | MNS ES WWW ee 
= | CON N= ily 


Jo! COUT =, 





=| a eas BIL > 














——_. ! ay 
H J as 6 ZA 
pee oe '= ay Se 
tie, Naas 


me, 5 La Po” oii, 
Ke ae a 
lf : 


nN UR fa oF A 
Mnf ay Pee 


—_—_—-_> 








349 
which are quite rare, a typical example is shown in fig. 350. Here the seated deity 
in a long robe is beardless, apparently a goddess. One hand, under a star, reaches 
out and touches the bull’s horn. The gate in the center of the composition has 
two cross-bars and two very simple wings, made of five horizontal lines each, and so 
less realistic than the wings in fig. 349. ‘The gate rests on a bull lying down, with 
its legs bent under it, except one fore leg which is extended as if the bull wished 
to rise. From under each wing there issues a stream, or cord perhaps, one stream 





351 
directed out nearly horizontally until it reaches the deity’s shoulder, while the 
other is grasped by the two hands of a naked bearded figure kneeling on one knee, 
the other foot resting on the back of the bull. The stream bends and falls grace- 
fully and the end rests on the ground under the knee of the worshiper, whose face 
is turned back as if looking toward the back of the goddess. The goddess appears 
to have simply a fillet about her hair, which is tied in a loop behind, while the 
worshiper wears a square cap, possibly of feathers. It is to be observed that the 
streams, or cords, whichever they are, are drawn with a line with short lines from 

123 


124 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


it at an acute angle, which might represent the twisting of a cord or the movement 
of a stream. One will observe also that in this case the line of the gate, on the 
right side, seems to be produced across the bull’s body; but this is not usual. 

A similar example is seen in fig. 351. The gate with its streams, the bull, and 
the seated goddess are the same, but the male worshiper is standing instead of 
kneeling, and we have a crescent in place of the star. ‘The stream on the side of 
the seated goddess reaches to her hand. ‘These two cylinders represent the usual 
design, but of the few cases known most are badly worn and not worth repeating. 
More usually the worshiper is kneeling; sometimes, however, he is omitted entirely. 
Such a case occurs in fig. 352, an unusually small example of green serpentine. 
Here the wings are seen above the gate, as if under a crossed seat, and there 
are no streams from below the wings. In fig. 353 the streams are drawn with a 
series of angles, and we have a stiff erect tree. Here, again, the worshiper is stand- 
ing. But in fig. 354 the streams are reduced to mere lines (two on one side), the 
top of the tree is truncated, and there is no worshiper. In fig. 355, a shell cylinder, 









\ 


\ 


WS 
\\ 






WMI AY 


MS 








Hl j Y, 
ve : Y, 
J y 







QQ 


\ 


\\ 
\S 
pha 






355 

there are again two streams on the side of the standing worshiper. In fig. 356 we 
note a different drawing of the wings, and there are no streams, a strange omission. 

There is one other cylinder that belongs to this type, and yet varies so much 
from it that it needs special attention. It is quite archaic and of shell, and it is 
possible that it indicates a more primitive design. In fig. 357 we have the seated 
god, apparently bearded, the bull and the kneeling worshiper seizing the stream; 
but the gate is quite transfigured. “Iwo diverging lines rise from the bull’s back, 
and each has a wing; the wider space between the two lines at the top is occu- 
pied with horizontal lines. Unfortunately this cylinder, as in so many cases of this 
material, is very much worn, but the main outlines are unmistakable. The cylinder 
represented in fig. 358 is also very archaic, of marble, and in part lost. Here the 
two figures are mostly missing; and the bull is standing, and not, as in other cases, 
crouched on its knees. Yet one more may be added for completeness, shown in 
fig. 359. Here we have the winged gate over an animal which does not seem to 
be a bull, although the cylinder is rudely cut and badly worn. Behind the animal 
is a smaller one, which may be its young, and before it a man in a boat seems to 
reach towards it, while another man reaches forward on the other side of the boat. 


THE GODDESS WITH WINGED GATE AND BULL. 125 


Above them two figures run rapidly towards each other, apparently in fight. Here 
is no description of worship, and the cylinder may be unrelated to the others. 

Now, how is this scene to be interpreted? Why should the gate have wings? 
and who is the goddess? for a goddess it appears to be in every case except doubt- 
fully in fig. 357. In King’s “Assyrian Deeds and Documents,” 111, pp. 119, 120, 
a number of proper names are collected beginning with Jshtar-bab, meaning Ishtar- 
gate or Ishtar of the gate; and he suggests that Ishtar-bab may be a special desig- 
nation of Bau, for whose name we have a by-form, Babu or Gate. Until other 
evidence is presented we may presume that we have in this goddess seated before 
a gate, a representative of Bau, who, as we shall see, was regularly represented as 
a seated deity. ‘This also recalls the fact that the beardless deity whom we have 
seen seated on the archaic cylinders (Chapter v), at times accompanied by a gate, 
and in one case by a winged gate (fig. 349), is very likely Bau, who is one of the 
oldest of the Chaldean deities. z 





OX Pag 












aah 


iy 
S 





359 

But why is the gate winged? As to this only a conjecture can be hazarded. 
We know that the gate which accompanies the standing Shamash represents the 
approach of morning; it is the gate of the East, which is often referred to in the 
hymns as well as pictured on the cylinders which give us the standing Shamash. 
Here the gate may have a similar meaning, but connected with Ishtar of the Gate, 
that is, the morning star. In that case the wings may be compared with “the wings 
of the morning” in Ps. 139:9, and may represent the spreading of the morning light 
in the clouds that lie in level lines about the eastern horizon and are colored by the 
early light. 

But what of the bull? Bau has the by-name of the “Heifer of Isin”’ (Sayce’s 
“Religion of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia”). ‘The animal before the goddess 
is a bull, not a heifer. I do not recall that the cow is ever delineated on the Baby- 
lonian cylinders unless rarely with a calf. Perhaps the bull might properly accom- 
pany the heifer goddess. A bull alone is occasionally seen before a seated deity, 
perhaps generally a male god, the bull appearing almost to be climbing into the 
god’s lap (figs. 317, 318). Such an extremely archaic shell cylinder is seen in fig. 
360, which is considerably decayed, but we distinctly see an unusual and peculiar 
branch overshadowing the bull. But it is not clear that such a cylinder has any 
relation to the scene under consideration. 


126 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Another very unusual cylinder must be included, although its meaning is far 
from clear (fig. 361). It is archaic and very complex, and unfortunately the shell 
is much worn. On a long-legged quadruped there is what may be a winged gate, 
and over it a second, narrower gate, and above it what appears to be a heraldic 
eagle with figures each side with hands uplifted. There is a boat among the reeds, 
a number of men and animals and two processions of men, one above the other. 
There must be in this a story representing an unknown myth, just as the cylinders 
show the myth of Etana on the eagle, Chapter xx1I. 

And what is the meaning of the “streams”? Are they cords? One can not 
but compare them with the cords, sometimes with tassels at the end, which fall 
from under the wings of the ered disk ghia: the se deity, Ashur, 


Ni ee 











Ih Col Te oe 
sa SORE 


Vs 


<n ares : 


in a considerable class of Assyrian seals of a much later Sct These Py are 
grasped by the worshiper and seem to represent the connection between the god 
and his petitioning servant. It is not impossible that the winged gate of sunrise 
corresponds to the winged disk of the Assyrian supreme god Ashur, which also is 
identified with the disk of the sun and sometimes in art represents the Sun-god 
Shamash (fig. 1279). In that case the later Assyrian design of the cords from the 
wings of the disk would be borrowed from this much earlier design of the cords from 
the wings of the gate, but they would be connected with a much higher emblem 
of supreme deity. ‘The difficulty about considering them as streams lies in the fact 
that in no case is any vase seen from which or into which the water flows, such as 
might from analogy be expected. 

It may be added that in one or two cases the material of which these cylinders 
are made is of an unusual kind of serpentine, which might suggest a peculiar local 
origin. 








360 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


THE SERPENT GODS. 


There is a class of cylinders of the older period, not at all numerous, on which 
there is represented a seated, bearded deity, whose body consists of a serpent coil. 
Before him there may be one or more standing worshipers, or he may be faced by 
a seated goddess, and behind him there may be a gate. Such an example is seen 
in fig. 362. In this cylinder the serpent god carries a small branch in his hand, 
the gate is behind him, and the goddess opposite holds a shallow bowl in her hand; 
above her arm is the crescent, and behind the two is the early form of an emblem 
which seems to mean the designation of a deity. 





Another characteristic example is seen in fig. 365, where an altar, under the 
moon and star, stands between the god and his worshiper, while behind the wor- 
shiper is the gate with its porter. In fig. 364 the gate appears, and the worshiper 
is led by the hand to the god. Again the gate is seen in fig. 363, where we see the 
crescent and a single worshiper approaching the deity. In fig. 366 there is no gate, 
but there are three worshipers and an archaic inscription. 

A more than usually interesting example of this type is seen in fig. 367, which 
shows peculiar variations. The god has rays from his shoulders, such as we see in 
the case of the seated Shamash (Chapter xiv). Between the god and his seated god- 
dess is an hourglass-shaped altar; and the gate is of an unusual pattern. There 
prevails, however, an extraordinary sameness about the designs on these cylinders. 

Another of the usual pattern is seen in fig. 368. ‘This cylinder, which is of 
green serpentine and very well preserved, shows no sign of a beard on the serpent- 
god. Between the two deities is a simple altar, apparently of bricks, from which a 
flame arises. We see also a star and two crescents, one for each of the deities. 

But there is another serpent-god who appears very rarely in early Babylonian 
art, for our knowledge of whom we are indebted, as for so much of value as to early 
Babylonian art, to M. Heuzey. (See “Sceau de Goudéa,”’ fig. 6; Revue d’Assyrio- 

127 


128 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


logie, V, p. 135; 7b., V1, p. 95.) It was from the impression of the cylinder on a 
tablet in the Louvre, the inscription on the cylinder reading, “Gudea, patesi of 
Shirpurla,” or Tello, that he recognized the god on it as Ningishzida (fig. 3682). 
The god sits on his throne, and holds one vase before his breast, from which two 
streams rise and fall, and a second vase in his other hand. Before him stands his 
intermediary god, who with one hand supports one vase and with the other leads 
the worshiper, very probably Gudea himself, with his shaven head. ‘The streams 
from the vases fall into three vases on the ground, each of which in turn spouts out 
two more streams, so that there are ten jets in all. There are serpents rising from 
the shoulders of the intermediary god, who is recognized as Ningishzida (see 
Chapter Lxvill, sub voce). We may with some assurance regard the seated god as Ea, 
although in the previous figure he was standing. We would, however, have expected 
Gudea to be worshiping Ningirsu. But we have found in the case of Shamash that 





a god might be figured in either way, sitting or standing. For a discussion of this 
cylinder in its relation to Ea see the description of it in connection with fig. 650. 
But it is the intermediary god with whom we are now concerned. From each of his 
shoulders there rises a serpent. He is the god who introduces Gudea to his chief 
patron deity, Ningirsu or Ea, although Gudea was also greatly devoted to Nin- 
gishzida. In his great inscription he says—(Cylinder A, col. xvii1, 14-17), describ- 
ing his approach to his supreme god Ningirsu in his temple: “The god Lugal- 
Kurdub went before him; the god Gal-alim followed him; Ningishzida, his god, 
held him by the hand.” It is thus that Gudea is here led by the hand, for, as this 
seal is personally Gudea’s, according to the inscription, and not that of a scribe, 
we may, with Heuzey, properly presume that the worshiper is Gudea himself. 
Ningishzida is then, as Heuzey shows, the god, more than once called “his god,” 
who introduces him to the principal god, who would naturally be Ningirsu, but who 
appears, from his attribute of water, to be Ea. It is fitting that the serpent god 
Ningishzida should be followed by the winged serpent-headed monster. 

This design already shown is from its impression on a tablet; but a single 
cylinder is known, from the great collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New 


THE SERPENT GODS. 129 


York, which gives us a representation of Ningishzida, but here not as an inter- 
mediary (fig. 368). The cylinder, which appears to be somewhat later than Gudea, 
is of hematite. The god stands in the form of an image resting on feet like those of 
a tripod. The garment is contracted below, like the bronze images. The face is 
in front view, and there are two protuberant ears. A serpent rises from each 
shoulder. ‘The hands are folded on the breast. Perhaps the garment might not be 
regarded as flounced, but as having something wound about it to draw it to the 
body. On one side of Ningishzida stands the nearly nude Zirbanit, and on the 


< 
BE 





(Gi 
AK 
INA 
cn) it VA 
ih, a 


ANN 
\/ Du 


KDR IEE 





wy 


wee — 
Sagecrea re eng ee 
a et Ce a 


a ae 


3680 
other a deity, perhaps female, with necklace (or beard ?), holding a scimitar. A 
worshiper approaches carrying in one hand a pail and with the other lifting a 
crutch-like object, above which is a tortoise. The other emblems are the thunder- 
bolt of Adad, the vase and “libra,” a fly and a fish. ‘This cylinder is of interest 
as showing that the worship of Ningishzida continued probably a thousand years 
after Gudea. The serpents from the shoulders are perfectly clear. At the same 
time it is possible to interpret the oblique folds of the god’s garment as those of 
the serpents twined about the god; and in that case what appear to be the feet of 
a tripod under the god will be the tails of the serpents. We are reminded of the 
Cretan serpent-god. — 
9 


130 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


The devotion of Gudea to Ningishzida, and at the same time the relation of 
this god to the serpent, is shown in the vase dedicated by him to Ningishzida, of 
which the design is shown in fig. 368c. Here two serpents twine about a central 
column, and on each side is the monster seen in fig. 368a. It is thus again made 
clear that the god to whom the vase was dedicated was represented by serpents. 

There is one other representation of Ningishzida known in old Babylonian 
art (see Eduard Meyer, “Sumerier und Semiten in Babylonien,”’ plate vit), shown 
in fig. 368d. ‘This is a relief dated by the inscription on the garment of the wor- 
shiper led to the god, which reads, “ Gudea, patesi of Shirpurla.”” ‘The fragmentary 
condition of the monument allows us to see only the streams about the seated god; 
but the figure of Ningishzida, with the serpents from his shoulders, is admirably 
preserved. 

The idea of the serpents growing from the shoulders of the god has been per- 
petuated, it would seem, in the Persian myth of the wicked Zohak (fig. 368¢), who 
allowed Satan to kiss his shoulders, when a serpent grew out of each, and they 
had to be fed with human brains, two victims being killed each day. 

Such a cylinder as we see in fig. 3687, although it belongs to the Hittite period, 
gives rise to a question as to the meaning of the serpents from the shoulders. Here 
we see serpents apparently rising from the shoulders of the god, but it is only 
apparent, for the god grasps the serpents in his hands, which are joined over his 
breast, while their bodies fall down nearly to the ground. This suggests that it is 
possible that, just as streams flow from the shoulders of a god, although the thought 
is that they really flowed from a vase in the god’s lap, so it may be that by a sort 
of convention only the heads of the serpents were drawn, the hands being other- 
wise occupied in figs. 368a and d, while in fig. 368) the god winds the serpents 
about him. It is to be added that (Gudea, Cylinder A 5: 19, 20) Ningishzida is 
described as a solar deity: “The sun which lifted itself up from the earth before 
thee, is thy god Ningishzida. Like the sun he goes forth from the Earth.” 

The worship of the serpent is almost universal, whether as a good or an evil 
power. In Persia we have the serpent as typifying the hostile force which resists 
the good in Ahuramazda. In India there were the Nagas of Manu and the epic 
poems, who were identical with the serpent Ahi, etc., of the Rigveda. The Naga 
chiefs were represented with a canopy of hoods of cobras over their heads. Surya, 
the Hindu Sun-god, has a similar serpent canopy, and the Napa demigods hold a 
sun-disk in their hands, showing, apparently, a relation between sun-worship and 
serpent-worship, such as is indicated by the combination of the serpent body and 
the rays in fig. 367. In China we have dragon-worship in which the serpent has 
been developed into a fantastic monster. The Greeks knew a serpent Typhon; 
and there was a Phenician Esmun-Asklepios (Serpentarius). According to Phere- 
cydes the Phenicians had a serpent-god Ophion, the first ruler of heaven, but cast 
down to Tartarus by Kronos who prevailed over him in the beginning of things. 
The serpent is familiar in Egyptian mythology, whether as the god Urzeus, which 
adorned the heads of various gods, or as the evil Apep, the foe of Horus, Ra, and 
Osiris (Budge, “Gods of the Egyptians,” 1, p. 376). There was a seven-headed ser- 
pent and also a monstrous serpent of sunrise (zb., 1, pp. 20, 267). In the Egyptian 
Fund’s “ Defeneh,”’ plate 25, is figured a god with a serpent body, holding a ser- 
pent in each hand. We shall see in fig. 796 the serpent in Hittite worship; and the 


THE SERPENT GODS. Isl 


dragon attacked by Bel becomes a serpent in certain varieties of the Assyrian legend, 
as we shall see in figs. 578, 579. 

An interesting fragment (paraphrased by Bezold, Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, 
IX, p. 116) tells us that the goddess Belit-ili carries a horn, that her breast is filled 
with milk, that with her left hand she lifts an uncertain creature to her nipple, that 
the upper part of her body is that of a woman and the lower part that of a serpent. 
In the same text we are told that Ea has a serpent’s head. 

It is not easy to identify the early Babylonian seated deity that is represented 
by the human figure and the coiled serpent-body shown in figs. 362-8. The 
Babylonians had various serpents, such as we find on the kudurrus, also the seven- 
headed serpent. Serpents are very frequent on the cylinders, either standing upright 
on their tails or made into a weapon held by a god, or in the double caduceus (No. 30 
of Chapter Lx1x). We have seen the two serpents arranged symmetrically on 
the bronze vase of Gudea (fig. 368c), and the change of the dragon into a serpent 
has been mentioned. There was a serpent-god Siru, of whom we know simply his 
name (Jastrow, ‘Religion,’ p. 170), who is not likely to be this figured deity inas- 
much as he is the serpent of the kudurrus. The identification with Ea may be 
suggested, although we seem to see him surrounded by streams in figs. 648-650; 
but that may be because we know so little of the art of Eridu. And yet we may 
think of the Elamite Kadi, who was the mother of Siru, according to the list 
of gods in the kudurru of Nazimaruttash. An archaic figure of the Athenian 
Cecrops (Benjamin Powell, “Erichthonius” in “Cornell Studies,” fig. 2; Miss 
Harrison’s ‘‘ Mythology and the Monuments,” fig. 2) deserves comparison. Inas- 
much as in the period just following that of this seated serpent-god we have Nin- 
gishzida as a god with serpents from his shoulders, he, or his father, Ninazu, 1s 
to be considered. The older seated god, with serpent-body, may have been trans- 
ferred in the time of the higher art of Gudea into an anthropomorphic deity, with 
serpents simply rising from the shoulders, as the quivers rise from the shoulders of 
Ishtar. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


DEITIES OF AGRICULTURE.* 


While the agricultural cylinders do not belong to the most primitive periods, 
they are yet most of them early, going back to the period of the linear inscriptions, 
although usually they show no inscriptions at all. They are generally of the large 
thick style of most of those which show the contests of Gilgamesh. Some of them 
show purely agricultural scenes, with no suggestion of any deity, which is unusual 
in the art of so religious a people as were the early Chaldeans. ‘These cylinders 
give us usually a plowing scene or oxen in the cultivated grain; while others show 
us gods of agriculture decked with grain, to whom is presented a plow. One of 
the former sort appears in fig. 369. Here three men are plowing with one ox, or 
a yoke of oxen, of which only one could be drawn by the unskilful artist. It is 








369 Py ae nas ae Laie daamanianSTo 

an ox, and not a buffalo. One of the three men holds the plow firmly down by 
the two handles; a second presses down the point of the plow with a stick, while 
a third drives the ox with a whip. How the beam of the plow is connected with 
the ox is not clear, whether by a yoke or some attachment to the horns. The 
men are all clad in simple short garments that will not interfere with their work. 
Two birds are seen flying about, evidently on the lookout for worms or grubs. 
The inscription is linear and archaic. Another of probably the same period, and 
extremely well drawn, is shown in fig. 370, where we see simply two oxen standing 
in the grain, which is here distinctly not wheat or barley, the two older varieties 
of the nobler grains, but millet or durra, the coarser food of the poorer classes in 
the East to-day. It is a grain seldom seen in Europe or America, much like our 
broom-corn. 





* For an earlier discussion of these cylinders see Ward, Am. Journal of Arch., 11, pp. 261-6, 1886, where five of this 
class are figured. 


132 


DEITIES OF AGRICULTURE. Loo 


An elaborate design representing the work of plowing the ground is given in 
fig. 371. Here two oxen, or two yoke of oxen, are attached tandem to the plow. 
Their yokes are distinctly drawn. One of the plowmen holds the plow by the two 
handles; a second presses down the point of the share; while two others drive the 
oxen with a whip. The construction of the plow is fairly well shown; but that is 
better shown in a cylinder to be described later. Another cylinder, which is proba- 
bly much later (fig. 372), shows the same scene less developed. Here the man who 
holds the plow with one hand drives the oxen with the other hand. There appear 
to be eight dots* where we would expect seven in the Assyrian art, besides the moon 
and star. This raises some question whether the cylinder of the previous figure 
really belongs to the archaic period. 

A purely agricultural scene is shown in fig. 373, where we have a wattled pen 
for the cattle, one of which is represented as coming out of it on each side, while 
five others are drawn, one of them above, perhaps conceived as within it, and the 
others approaching it, two on each side. This, however, is not an old Babylonian 


B78 
seal, but belongs to a later period and a more northern locality. It is of white 
marble and is not pierced longitudinally, but has at the upper end a handle pierced 
horizontally, as in fig. 16. This shape we shall find not very infrequent in the seals 
of a Hittite period, although it is not distinctively Hittite. 

Of the cylinders of the Old Empire which represent a deity receiving a plow 
no one gives us the construction of the plow more carefully indicated than fig. 374. 
Here the seated bearded god has wheat (or barley) radiating from his shoulders, 
and he holds in his hand two more ears of wheat. Three bearded figures approach, 
of whom the second presents a plow and the third brings wheat in his hands, 
while wheat seems to grow from his garments. This cylinder is of serpentine, a 
material which is not easily corroded, although easily worn; when protected from 
wear, as in this case, it preserves admirably the work of the engraver’s tools. In 
this case the plow is excellently drawn. We see clearly the two handles connecting 
with the point in front, the strengthening cross-bar, and the beam tied to the bent 
beam-end of the point of the share. 







A Wa 
ts 


NI 








134 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


We have another good example of the plow in fig. 377 from a little different 
point of view, which opens somewhat more clearly the curve of the part of the beam 
attached to the plow. It also shows us a pin which connected the curve of the 
beam with the share. Here again we have the seated bearded god and two approach- 
ing bearded personages, the first leading the second, who brings a goat as an offer- 
ing. We also see the ibex near the mountains, over which is the inscription; also 
a peculiar star and a dagger between a club, or scepter, and an ax. 





Another cylinder in which a worshiper, or perhaps a divine attendant, presents 
the plow to the seated god is seen in fig. 375, in which the curve of the beam at- 
tached to the share is more pronounced still. Here a second attendant leads a wor- 
shiper with a goat for sacrifice, and the seated god has streams issuing presumably 
from a vase by his body, a design to be considered later. Again we have the club 
or scepter. In fig. 376 the deity is a goddess. She holds three stalks of wheat in her 
hand, and before her is an altar of an early type (see Chapter Lxvi) and the attend- 
ant holds the plow downward, as if plowing, instead of carrying it. ‘The worshiper 
appears to have left his offerings, a bird and cakes, perhaps, on the altar and to 
have returned to his work on which the goddess looks benevolently. 





379 


On another handsome seal of lapis-lazuli (fig. 379) we have a different form 
of offering. The worshiper is pouring a libation on two altars shaped like an hour- 
glass. The deity, who seems to be the Sun-god Shamash, holds a plow in his right 
hand. ‘The inscription bears the name of the owner, Amur-Shamash. The name 
of the god represented enters into the name of the owner. 

We occasionally find the deities and attendants ornamented with wheat when 
the plow is omitted. Such a case appears in fig. 378, where the seated goddess 
holds two stalks in her hand, and three bearded figures approach in an attitude 
of respect, the last of them being quite enveloped in radiating stalks of wheat. 
Another such case seems to be seen in fig. 380, where the goddess holds a branch, 
not wheat, and stalks, probably of wheat, are seen in the field. An ibex stands 
rampant before her, and two worshipers bring goats as offerings. Another excel- 


DEITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 135 


lent example of the seated deity with agricultural surroundings, but no plow, is 
seen in fig. 381. Here the deity, apparently male, holds in his hand a stalk of durra 
and a stalk of the same grain rises from each shoulder, while the first of the three 
approaching figures is enveloped in wheat. 

An admirable example of the goddess of agriculture is seen in fig. 382, on which 
two separate designs appear. The one to the right is considered in the chapter on 
the “God Attacking an Enemy” (fig. 1362). Here the goddess has two ears of 
wheat in her lifted right hand and a single ear in her left hand. The bearded 
attendant who introduces the worshiper carries an ear of wheat in his right hand 
and branches spring from his shoulders. He is followed by the long-bearded 
worshiper and by a beardless servant carrying a goat as an offering. It will be 
observed that the worshiper wears the same headdress as the goddess and the 
attendant male god or demigod. In fig. 383 the goddess, with a long tress behind, 









| Hcy 
Y 
ln 





sits on what looks like a hill. From her shoulders the branches look more like 
reeds than wheat, and she carries another in her hand. Four figures approach, of 
which the first and last seem to be feminine. 

For an excellent example of the plow in Assyrian times see Pinches, “Old 
Testament in the Light of Historical Records,’ p. 388. A plow very similar to 
that depicted on these cylinders is still in use in the East, and in Syria agriculturists 
have been known to object to part with one of these rude plows, out of jealousy 
lest they might be imitated by rival agriculturists elsewhere. Plows much like 
this are still in use in Western Europe, and perhaps no better modern illustration 
need be given than of those now employed by Spanish farmers, as in the accom- 
panying illustrations (figs. 384, 385). 

The goddess of agriculture seems to have been Gula, or Bau. She was “the 
Great Mother” from whom mankind received both the herds and the crops of the 
field (Sayce, “The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia,” p. 304; Jastrow, 
“Religion of Babylonia,” pp. 59, 462, 678) and she was herself designated as a 
heifer. But Bau became one of the forms of Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, to 
whom the sixth month, the culmination of the summer season was devoted. To 


136 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Bau as the goddess of fertility, offerings were made of animals and the fruits of 
the ground, and the early Chaldean New Year’s Day, called Zagmuku, was con- 
secrated by Gudea to gifts to Bau and her husband Ningirsu, called marriage gifts. 
Other figures of Bau are shown in Chapter x1I. 


YYYNY , 
Z H Hf aN 7 bys a 
=, YY yun We ical . 
0G) 








385 
We seem to have a statue of this goddess represented in fig. 386. Here we 


have the impression of a cylinder on a round tablet, the seated goddess, with wheat 
from her shoulders, and behind her the standing image of the same goddess on a 
pedestal, surrounded with wheat. What gives special value to this design is the 
fact that it is accompanied by an inscription on which is read the name of Naram- 


J ey ta 
Vi And 
EO 












| | 
= YY "jj? 
ij, mor” Py, lili... 
Mh tube Me 386 


387 
Sin, King of Agade, the successor of his father Sargon the Elder. This carries 
back the worship of images, in the form of statues in the round, to a very early 
period. We may follow M. Heuzey in believing that the standing statue and the 
seated goddess represent the same goddess of fertility, probably Bau. 
But it is a god as well as a goddess of agriculture that we see in fig. 387. The 
god appears to wear, which is most unusual, a lion’s skin and carries a bow. The 


DEITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 137 


goddess stands before him, and both are embowered in wheat. Besides the two 
we have the goddess Ishtar with weapons from her shoulders, a worshiper with 
a goat, a female figure with a spouting vase, an altar, and a rampant goat between 
the agricultural deities. ‘There is also the inscription giving the name of “ Ili-ugum, 
the Scribe.” ‘The lion’s robe is so extraordinary, indeed so like the robe of Hercules, 
that one is inclined to raise a question as to whether this cylinder has not been 
somewhat reworked. ‘The bow is unusual, but we see it on the Expedition cylinder, 
fig. 390; and the weapons of Ishtar and the inscription seem genuine. This cylinder 
is from the collection of the late Lord Southesk. 

A male deity with the same emblems would preferably be Ningirsu. Indeed 
Ningirsu, under the name of Shul-gur, “Heap of Corn,” was an agricultural deity 
and was also identified with Tammuz under one of the Protean forms of the latter 
god (Jastrow, “Religion,” p. 58; Sayce, “Religion,” p. 350), while Bau provides 
“abundance” for tillers of the soil. 

The sixth sign in the zodiac was designated, at least in the Seleucid times, 
by a word meaning “ear of wheat” (Jensen, “ Kosmologie,” pp. 311, 312); and 
Jensen says that doubtless the Greek ears of corn in the hand of Virgo go back to 
this designation of the sign as “ Ear of Wheat.”’ The representation of the goddess 
with the ear of wheat on the cylinders proves that the Greek design has its relation 
with a very early period in Babylonian religion. And yet it is far from certain that 
this goddess is not Nisabu, daughter of Anu and sister of Bel. She was much 
worshiped by Lugal-zaggisi at an extremely early period, and was especially a 
deity devoted to fertility and grain. In an inscription by Scheil in the Orientalische 
Literaturzeitung, July, 1904, p. 256, is given an inscription in honor of Nisabu, 
on a large terra-cotta vessel which may have been intended for grain. She is 
described as the gracious Lady beloved of Anu, who rules the fruitfulness of the 
land, who has innumerable wombs and nipples, and eighteen ears. She is the great 
Scribe of Anu and the great sister of Enlil. It is interesting to know that a goddess 
should be a scribe; but, as Scheil says, agriculture was the mother of letters, for 
it was the abundance of the grain and fruits that created property and trade and 
made letters and records necessary to protect property. It is not strange that a 
goddess of wheat should also be the goddess of letters and herself the scribe of the 
gods. We know in Babylonian times of a woman scribe, Amat-bawu. Barton in 
his “A Sketch of Semitic Origins,” p. 218, makes Nidaba a goddess and patron 
of agriculture. 


CHAPTER XxX. 


DEITIES GATHERING FRUIT: THE “TEMPTATION” SCENE. 


No design upon the cylinders has created so much discussion or attracted so 
much popular interest as that shown in fig. 388 and which has been popularly 
supposed to represent the temptation of Adam and Eve by a serpent. The design 
is a very simple one. We have a palm-tree, with a bunch of dates hanging down 
on each side of the trunk. On one side sits a deity—probably masculine, although 
the beard does not show—in a two-horned headdress and a long, sive garment. 
His hand is stretched out toward the tree. Facing him on the other side of the 
tree is a seated female figure, not having on her head the two-horned headdress of 
the god; she also is in a long, simple garment and holds her hand toward the tree. 
Between the backs of the two figures is an upright serpent with its head nearly 
over the woman’s head. 








388 

It is not strange that any one familiar with the Bible story of the Temptation 
should regard this design as a proof that the early Babylonians had a similar story, 
although no remnant of it seems to have been preserved. Indeed, we may fairly 
expect that some such story. may be found, just as we have Babylonian stories of 
the Creation and the Flood. ‘This cylinder seems to belong to quite an early period. 
But it must not be forgotten that the upright serpent occurs quite often on cylinders, 
especially of the middle Babylonian period, and its presence here is not a certain 
evidence that it had any definite relation with the thought of the two figures seated 
about the palm-tree. 

George Smith, in his “Chaldean Genesis,” p. gi, interpreted this without 
question as a representation of the Temptation, but Ménant (“Glyptique Orientale,”’ 
I, pp. 189-191) has strongly combated this view and has brought forward a strong 
argument against it in comparing with it a marble cylinder in the Museum of The 
Hague (fig. 389). It is a beautiful cylinder, which deserves careful study. We 
have again the palm-tree with its hanging bunches of dates. On each side stands 
a female figure with her hand on the hanging bunch of dates, while she holds 
another bunch in her hand. One of the figures is handing the bunch she holds to 
a third female figure which is reaching forward her hand to receive it, while still 
holding another bunch in her other hand. There is, in the field, a second short 
palm-tree with dates, and two other low trees or shrubs, and also two birds like 
geese or ducks, also a crescent and a brief inscription with the owner’s name. 
Here is no temptation scene like that of Genesis. We seem to have a garden, it 

138 


DEITIES GATHERING FRUIT: THE ‘‘TEMPTATION”’ SCENE. 139 


is true, and birds. We may presume that the two similar figures plucking the 
dates represent but one personage repeated for the sake of the symmetry so much 
affected in early and later Babylonian art. The arrangement of the hair is the 
same as we have seen (Chapter x11) characteristic of the seated goddess Bau. With 
her often appears also a bird, such as is here depicted. We may preferably assume 
that here the bird is the emblem or adjunct of the goddess and is repeated merely 
because she is thus repeated. We seem to have simply the representation of a 
goddess of the garden, who is presenting its fruits to humanity represented by the 
woman receiving the bunches of dates. 





389 

I know of no other cylinder to be compared with either of these, for they are 
unique. ‘To be sure, I have received the impression of a cylinder much like the 
last, but I rejected it as a forgery. 

In comparing this cylinder with that in the British Museum, we seem to dis- 
cover in the latter no idea of temptation. More likely two deities of production 
are represented, a god and his consort, and they are enjoying the fruit over which 
they preside. Bau was a goddess who provided abundance for tillers of the soil. 
Bau, it is true, was the mother of Ea, and so one of the oldest of the deities, and 
yet she was the consort of Ningirsu, who presided over agricultural prosperity and 
was known as Shul-gur, god of the corn-heaps (Jastrow, “Religion,” pp. 58, 59), 
as we have seen in the last chapter. 

It may be, very possibly, that we have here, in the British Museum seal, Nin- 
girsu and Bau. 


CHAPTER XXI. 


THE EXPEDITION SCENE. 


The single royal cylinder which carries the Migration Scene (fig. 390) is such 
a peculiar and extraordinarily fine one that it well deserves a chapter to itself. 
There is no other with which it can be compared, except in single features. It is 
cut with extreme care and vigor, and might well be taken for a work of Greek art 
of a good period, so far as its technique is concerned. The inscription proves that 
it belongs to the early empire, being older than Gudea, and probably about the 
age of Sargon I. The inscription reads: “ Bil-gur-akhi, King of Urukh, thy servant” 
(“Keilinsch. Bibl.,” 111, p. 84). 





There are seven figures in the design, besides the inscription. The leader 
carries in one hand a bow, in the other what may be an arrow; and a quiver with 
weapons hangs on his back. He wears a short garment reaching not quite to his 
knees. On his feet are buskins, strongly curved up at the toes and the legs of which 
reach above the ankles. He is bareheaded, and his hair and beard are short and 
straight. Herein he differs from the other three bearded figures, whose hair and 
beard are short and curled. The leader’s head is turned back towards his followers. 
The remaining figures are all barefoot. Four of them are of full size and most 
carefully and minutely drawn. These are clothed alike, in a single garment reach- 
ing to the knees, hanging from one shoulder, leaving the other shoulder and arm 
free. The material of the garments Heuzey calls kaunakes, but it may consist sim- 
ply of strips of the fleece of the sheep. Usually this material is distinctly flounced, 
but in this case the flounces are distinct in only one of the three figures. The three 
have short, curly hair and curly beard, but their features are distinctly not negroid 
and might pass for good Caucasian. The curl of the beard quite differs from the 
straight, though short, beard of the leader. Like the leader, the second figure 
turns his head back to see those who follow. His head is bare, his arms are folded, 
and in one hand he carries a rather long rod, which is not a knobbed club. Between 
the two, in a space almost too narrow for it, is a short dagger with a handle. The 
next figure, with distinctly flounced garment, wears a low cap, not a turban. His 
beard is short and closely curled, but his hair is long and is turned back and tied 
in a band, as is found with male and especially female figures in early art. But 
he is remarkable for the weapon he carries, resting on his shoulder. It is an ax, 

140 


THE EXPEDITION SCENE. 141 


or rather a pick, with a short handle and with a long, sharp tooth at the end, per- 
haps tied to it; for there are three projections on the other side which may possibly 
represent the cord. ‘The next figure, the fourth, if male, is completely shaven, 
without hair or beard. His garment is simply fringed at the edges; his arms are 
folded and he carries no weapon. ‘The last of the five larger figures is bareheaded 
and is dressed like the second, and he carries an ax, as does the third, resting on 
his arm. Under the inscription are two short figures, in simple garments reach- 
ing half-way down to the knees. ‘The first one, beardless and with short hair, 
probably a man or boy, carries a piece of furniture on his head. ‘The second, 
which is more probably female, has the hair tied up in a loop behind and carries 
suspended from a stick over her shoulder a bundle, which looks like a bag in which 
one can conceive that household belongings are packed. It may be a bunch of 
dates or, possibly, a receptacle in which an infant rests. The unusually fine draw- 
ing of the whole scene appears particularly in the delineation of the muscles as well 
as of the features. 

This scene has been described and fully discussed by Heuzey, as a tribe in 
migration, and such it may be. But another interpretation is not impossible, 
according to which the single unarmed figure with shaved head is a prisoner, as 
are also the two reduced figures carrying burdens, very likely of spoil, who are to be 
captive slaves. Scenes representing prisoners taken in war are, it is true, extremely 
rare. But we have one such in fig. 97, an extremely archaic cylinder, considerably 
older than the present one, where the hands of the prisoners are tied and one of 
the captives carries an ax. I am inclined to take this to be the meaning of the 
present scene. 

As has been said, this is a cylinder of much antiquity, apparently belonging 
to the period not long after that of Sargon I. and his son, when art was at its highest 
development, the date of Bilgurakhi, King of Erech. We can not but wonder 
that, having progressed so far, it sank so soon into dull conventionalism. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


ETANA AND THE EAGLE. 


Of all the early Chaldean seals none gives more vivid indications of a story 
and a myth than those which show us a man astride an eagle, while dogs and men 
watch him as he sails away. ‘They are very few in number. When I made the first 
publication of them in 1886* I had found only two instances of their occurrence, 
both coming to my knowledge when on my visit to Baghdad; now I am acquainted 
with five such cylinders, besides two others that illustrate the composition, although 
not showing the man on the eagle. 

In the Babylonian literature preserved on the tablets to which we must look 
for the interpretation of these designs, the eagle figures in certain interesting myths 
which have been admirably collected by Professor E. T. Harper and Professor 
Jastrow. 

In the epic of Gilgamesh the eagle does not appear. The bright-colored 
Alallu bird that was one of Ishtar’s lovers was hardly an eagle. Of the legends, 
or myths, that do contain the eagle, the Etana story is of especial interest. This 
is considered in part in Chapter xv on “Shamash and the Bird-man.”’ From the 
fragmentary state of the tablets we can only learn that Etana, meaning “The 
Strong One,” was a hero whose wife was unable to bring forth the child she had 
conceived. Etana appealed to Shamash for help, who sent him to a mountain, 
for “the plant of birth.” How Etana reached the mountain by help of the eagle 
and secured the birth of his son is not known. We next find the eagle tempting 
Etana to visit the heaven of the gods. He mounts on the eagle’s body, grasps its 
pinions, and is borne upwards for many successive hours. A vivid picture is given 
of the reduced far-away aspect of the earth as he ascends, until he reaches the gate 
of Anu, Bel, and Ea. Then the eagle bids Etana visit the abode of Ishtar. But 
the goddess appears to be angry, and both the eagle and its rider fall to the earth 
and are perhaps dashed to pieces. 

With this portion of the Etana story is to be compared that told by Alian of 
the birth of Gilgamos (Gilgamesh), whose mother had been confined in a tower 
by her father Sokkaros, as he had been warned that his grandchild’s birth would 
be fatal to him. When the child was born he had it thrown from the tower, but 
an eagle caught it and carried it to a gardener who reared the child until grown. 
Jastrow is convinced that the child thus saved was Etana rather than Gilgamesh. 
It may even have been the Elder Sargon, who was reared by a water-carrier. 

Another chapter in the Etana legend tells us of the overthrow of the eagle by 
the serpent. The eagle had wickedly stolen and eaten the young of the serpent, 
against the warning of the wise young eagle. ‘The serpent appealed to Shamash, 
Judge of Gods and Men, for vengeance. Shamash told the serpent to hide in the 





* American Journal of Archeology, vol. 11, No. 1. One of the two was afterwards published independently by Dr. 
Pinches, who had not happened to see my paper. “ Babylonian and Assyrian Cylinder-Seals and Signets in the possession of Sir 
Henry Peek, Bart.,” by T. G. Pinches, London, 1890, fig. 18. 


142 


ETANA AND THE EAGLE. 143 


body of a wild bull, and when the eagle, following the other birds, should attempt 
to feed on the body, to seize and kill him. The story tells us how the wise young 
eagle warned its parent against a possible trick, but in vain. The eagle looked 
carefully, saw that the other birds seemed to be in no danger, and after examination 
descended and began to eat, when it was seized by the serpent, its wings plucked, 
and it was left to die. 

The Storm-god Zu gives another form of the eagle-myths which were preva- 
lent among the old Babylonians. It violently seizes the tablets of fate held by the 
god Bel Enlil, while the god was pouring out the brilliant waters, a scene occasionally 
figured on the older cylinders, and flew away to a distant mountain. The meaning 
seems to be that the storms and clouds, represented by the bird, had, as the rainy 
season approached, got the victory over the sun, represented by Enlil. Anu is 
disturbed by the robbery of the tablets of fate, and all the gods are in consternation. 
One god after another is bidden to go and recover them, and finally Marduk (or 
perhaps Shamash) succeeds in recovering them and restoring the reign of the sun 
over the earth. 

Yet another story in which an eagle bears a part is the Adapa legend. Adapa, 
son of Ea, is fishing in the ocean when the South Wind attacks him under the form 
of a bird. Adapa catches the bird and breaks its wings. “Then when the South 
Wind ceased to blow, the gods were disturbed. Anu was enraged and demanded 
that his protector Ea should bring Adapa into his presence. The story tells how, 
instructed by Ea, Adapa mollified the anger of the gods, and how he failed, having 
visited heaven, to secure immortality. But with this part of the story we have 
here no immediate concern nor with the parallelism between the story of Adam 
and that of Gilgamesh in their loss of immortality. 

The eagle appears in various forms and relations on the cylinders. We have 
already seen him, in Chapter rv on “Archaic Cylinders,” sometimes with a lion’s 
head and sometimes with that of an eagle, seizing two animals ut its talons, 
and also as the eagle-symbol of the city of Lagash. We now turn to another 
scene with the eagle, that in which he appears bearing on his wings a man into the 
heavens. This we may assume to represent the upward flight of Etana to the 
heaven of Anu, rather than the rescue of the infant Gilgamos by the eagle as the 
child was thrown from the tower. 

The finest example with this design is seen in fig. 391. It was first published in 
de Sarzec’s ‘‘ Découvertes en Chaldée”’ (plate 30 bis, fig. 13) and is a large cylinder 
of shell, which is evidence of its antiquity. “The man, on whose face we seem to 
see a beard, sits astride the eagle, with his arms around its neck. Under the eagle 
are two seated dogs, gazing upward; between them is a large pail, or basket, with 
a handle by which to carry it. Behind each of the dogs stands a man in a short 
garment. One of them, who holds in one hand a pail, or basket, like that between 
the two dogs, is gazing up at the eagle, with his head bent back so as to bring his 
short beard to a horizontal position, and shades his eyes with his other hand: the 
other man carries a staff and has one hand lifted toward the eagle. It is evident 
that all this is one scene. A second scene shows us a wicker fence, with an opening, 
or gate, at the bottom, out of which a shepherd is leading his sheep and goats. The 
front one, which faces the other three and is being milked by a seated figure, is a 
goat. A third scene, in the upper part of the cylinder, appears to be domestic. The 


144 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


three figures are all in long garments. ‘Two of them, their garments fringed at the 
bottom, sit facing each other, with a large two-handled amphora between them. 
Another such amphora is behind one of them. Behind the other is a row of three 
small amphoras, above which a parallelogram seems to be drawn, filled with four 
rows of circles, four in each row. One’s first thought would be that these are flat 
cakes or loaves. On the further side is a kneeling figure who has both hands resting 
down on an object before him. One might imagine him to be a cook kneading 
bread. In the upper field are a star and a crescent. 

A second cylinder (fig. 392) has somewhat less-developed scenes. We have 
the same man astride the eagle, and the two dogs under him looking up, and a 
man on one side with his head lifted as if gazing upward, although the head is not 
turned back; but the man has a whip in one hand as if he were driving the dogs 
away, though more likely driving his flock. He has also a basket or pail in the 
other hand. On the other side of the dogs is a man with a staff leading a goat 
followed by three sheep, but no wattled sheep pen is seen and no gate, there being no 















hh = = 


,s 
ria CF 
| Y 


1 ee SS 
mh y g JP Od is iin | 
BB OX ania | 






















QALD 
AWiiwiy: 
room for it. In front of the shepherd and over one of the dogs is a large amphora, 
and over the other dog a small object, perhaps a basket. Over the sheep is a large 
amphora, on each side of which sits a personage. ‘There is also a crescent, and a 
rectangle with cross-lines, which may correspond to the rectangle with circles in 
fig. 391. The three principal scenes in the two cylinders appear to correspond, 
and we have an additional point—the figure which in the former design had his 
face turned upward here has a whip in his hand. 

A third cylinder of this type is seen in fig. 393. Again we have the man astride 
the eagle and the two dogs gazing up at him, and the man with hand lifted before 
his face and carrying a basket, forming the first scene. ‘There is a variation in the 
scene of the shepherd, who is driving, not leading, his flock of one goat followed by 
two sheep, but with no sheepfold. We see, again, the two figures seated about an 
amphora, and we have the rectangular object, this time again with little circles, 
like cakes, and a man on his knees reaching toward it. This cylinder confirms 
the indication that the rectangle is intended to contain round objects of some 
sort. One might think of the holes in a window for the admission of air; but it 






ETANA AND THE EAGLE. 145 


would seem much more likely that they are loaves or cakes of some sort, in which 
case the kneeling figure is either reaching out to steal the bread or he is a baker 
making bread. 

A fourth cylinder (fig. 394) is simpler in design, but reduced, as necessitated 
by its smaller size. Here we see the man on the eagle, but only one dog is looking 
up, and no man. We have a gridiron-shaped indication of a wattled fence, towards 
which a shepherd is driving two goats and a sheep. We have the large amphora, 
and only one figure sitting by it. We have also the small circles, but there is not 
room for the small kneeling figure either making or stealing the “loaves.” But 
this cylinder adds one important element to the story. The man on the eagle, the 
shepherd, and the man seated by the amphora are all clearly bearded; they are not, 
then, women or children. It is to be regretted that the kneeling figure is not here 
included in the story, that we might know whether it is a man or a child. 


St ina 
Boe i 
fis i 





a ' Ne Ti 


E2 “9; 


Ag mm i VaR it a ie 
= wei es y SS LY “Y\, bal A 


\ f SNS a nays cr 


i Lae |G 
LY N 4 P V7) 
W my ) un 5 If mie DONA nie ‘g ww 
« Ae SO Mil an Neat al 


A fifth very elaborate cylinder belonging to Lord aa and quite equal 
to the first, is shown in fig. 395. Here is the man borne by the eagle, with the dogs 
looking up; beside them are two vessels. But we have also a second eagle in the 
branches of a tree, and a small animal by him, which perhaps he has seized and is 
carrying off, and two lions are at the base of the tree, one of them rampant as if 
looking up, perhaps angry that his prey has been snatched from him. A gridiron- 
shaped object represents the fence of the sheep-pen, before which stands the figure 
with hand lifted towards the second eagle, which we have seen gazing at the eagle 
with the man on its back. Behind him is the shepherd with a whip driving a goat 
and three sheep. Above the sheep, in place of the two men sitting about the amphora, 
is one seated man tipping a one-handled amphora. We have also the small circles, 
not inclosed in a rectangle, and the kneeling figure seems to have his hand on one 
of the “loaves.” Below his hand 1s a tall rectangular object, held by a kneeling 
figure; it might possibly be a receptacle into which the man above was about to 
drop the “loaf,” or it might represent yet an additional scene in the life of the hero. 
This cylinder shows us that the rape of the hero by the eagle, like that of Ganymede, 
is not the only feat of the eagle in the legend. It is also to be observed that the 
eagle is very much in the attitude of the eagle of Lagash. 

10 





146 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


With these cylinders must be compared another much like them, but which 
does not contain the man astride the eagle. It is shown in fig. 396. It is in two 
definite registers throughout, the two separated by a line. In the lower register 
we have the pastoral scene, a sheep-pen so minutely engraved that we can discover 
how the upright reeds are bound together; and the two posts of the gate are care- 
fully indicated, with the rings that serve as fastenings. Out of the gate comes a 
shepherd with a whip following two goats and three sheep. Between the goats 
and the sheepfold a man is sitting, with a pail or basket tipped in front of him and 
a dog sitting down and looking up at him, very likely waiting to be fed with milk 
from the pail. 

Thus far the scenes are as in the cylinders previously considered, the shepherd, 
the sheep and goats, and the sheepfold the same, and the dog and the man with 
the pail or basket being the same that we there saw looking up at the man on the 
eagle. In the upper register the scene is equally pastoral, but corresponds only in 
a less conspicuous but important part with the other cylinders. A man holds two 
goats, one of which is being milked by a second man. Unfortunately the milk-pail 
is not drawn, or more likely is lost in the decay of the material, but it will occur to 
one that what we have called pails or baskets, with a handle at the top, may be 
milk-pails. Three other goats are shown, one of them lying down and one with 
its kid and scratching its back, as goats do, with its horn. With his back to the 
man milking the goat sits another, perhaps ready to milk the goat that is lying 
down in front of him, or watching the flock. Above this goat are two little creatures 
which appear to be two kids at play, as kids do. For the elucidation of the other 
cylinders particularly important is the small scene above three of the goats, where 
we see the same rows of round cakes or loaves, if such they are. It is possibly fruit, 
here twelve in three rows of four each, incased in a rectangle of which one side ts 
preserved. An even more likely suggestion is that these are round cakes of cheese, 
made from the milk which had been curdled in the jars. A small figure, almost 
lying down, reaches his hand forward apparently to take one of the objects. Here 
it is almost impossible to avoid the conclusion that while the herdsmen are caring 
for their flocks this personage is furtively helping himself to food that is left un- 
guarded. The single line of inscription is of an archaic period. 

Another cylinder, very archaic, of shell, which suggests the same myth is 
to be seen in fig. 397. Here we have a tree with fruit, perhaps a fig-tree, in which 
case it is the oldest case known of the fig-tree in art; and a human figure, nude, 
appears in three scenes; once reaching forward, as if furtively to take food from a 
vessel; once bending down a reed, or branch; and once in an attitude as if drawing 
water from a well with a bucket, and an animal near by. If it be a well, the con- 
trivance for raising the water 1s of the simple sort familiar in modern times, called 
the shaduf. 

Yet one more cylinder (fig. 398) must be added for comparison, although it 
is much corroded, being of shell, and the figure fails to show all I see on the seal. 
One scene is the frequent design of a worshiper approaching a seated deity. The 
rest of the seal is taken up with the pastoral scene, the sheepfold, here a narrow 
opening, for a gate, between the vertical reeds. Out of it proceed three animals, the 
first a goat, but the erosion does not allow us to be sure whether the others are goats 
or sheep, probably the latter. Before the goat, and behind the worshiper, is a dog, 


ETANA AND THE EAGLE. 147 


with his body raised as if looking upward, as in those that were watching the man 
ascending on the eagle. Above the sheep is a man bending over, with his hands 
reaching downward toward some uncertain object, perhaps kneading bread, per- 
haps taking the contents of some vessel. Behind him are four jars. We can not 
doubt that the same story was in the mind of the engraver of this seal. 

These five cylinders which contain the man on the eagle, with these three 
others, are all known to me that seem to contain elements of what we may presume 
to be the Etana myth, as given in the texts first published by George Smith in his 
remarkable volume, “The Chaldean Genesis,’’ and since increased in number 
from the fragments published by Harper and Jastrow.* It is true that we have 
two Babylonian stories of an eagle carrying a man, as Ganymede was carried to 
heaven by an eagle in the Greek myth, which very likely had a Babylonian origin; 
but the story of Gilgamos borne as an infant by an eagle, as told by lian and not 
yet found in any Babylonian text, must be eliminated from the discussion of these 
cylinders, inasmuch as on one of them (fig. 394) the beard of the man on the eagle 
is clearly shown, and we can hardly suppose that the infant Gilgamos, or Gilgamesh, 
would be proleptically represented as a grown man. We are then, so far as the 
available known texts go, obliged to recognize in these seals various scenes in the 


Yi 
YA 


Vi 
\) 












LIF Myf 





U 


(77 















oor o 398 © 
story of Etana, the strong man. ‘The tablets published are from the library of 
Assurbanipal and may represent a later version of the myth than that on these 
early seals, which are probably more than two thousand years older than the tablets. 
Of course the tablets may be copied from a much earlier text. Jastrow says that 
the three or four tablets on which the story of Etana is contained gave probably 
only a portion of the entire epic, and such seems to be the indication of the composi- 
tion on the seals. 

If we may venture to regard the scenes as representing various episodes in 
the story of Etana, we should imagine that, like Sargon the Elder, and Gilgamesh, 
and the biblical Moses, his life began in a humble and tragic way. Sargon was 
adopted by a water-carrier and Gilgamos by a gardener. Etana seem: as a child 
to be a waif, doubtless of high birth but exposed to death, who is seen surreptitiously 
seizing the cheese-cakes, or /eben-balls, set out to dry in the sun, or perhaps the 
loaves of bread, and it may be drinking from a milk-jar. He was very likely detected 
and adopted by the shepherds. Then he became himself a shepherd, drove his 
flocks in and out of the fold, and milked the goats and ate from the vessels in which 
the milk and other products were stored, and fed the shepherd dogs. Etana married, 
and the texts tell us that when his wife had difficulty with childbirth Etana was 
directed to seek, with the help of the eagle, the birth-plant which would enable 





*E. J. Harper, “ Beitrige zur Assyriologie,” 11, pp. 390-408; Morris Jastrow, Jr., 1b. 111, pp. 363-378. Also see Maspero, 
“Dawn of Civilization,” pp. 698-700;€ Jastrow, “ Religion of Babylonia,” pp. 519-528. 


148 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


the mother to bring forth the child. A birth-plant is not exceptional: compare 
squaw-berry and squaw-weed, names of American plants. It would seem that he 
was to go to the mountains for it. It is possible that in fig. 395 we have this plant, 
or tree, with the eagle in its branches. But this is by no means clear, and the pres- 
ence of the small animal by the side of the eagle in the tree casts doubt upon it, 
as it does upon the supposition that we have here the representation of another 
event in the Etana story, where the eagle in the tree was ready to pounce on the 
nest of the serpent protected by Shamash. Then came the chief incident in his 
career, when on the wings of the eagle he was carried up to the heaven of Anu, 
Enlil, and Ea, until the earth and the oceans below him looked small as a little 
garden surrounded by its ditch. Said the eagle to Etana: 


My friend, lift up [thy countenance]. 

Come and let me carry thee to the heaven of [Anu] ; 
On my breast place thy breast ; 

On my pinions place thy palms ; 

On my side place thy side. 


Thus they ascended to the lower heaven of this ancient triad of gods; and then 
the eagle tempted him to ascend still higher to the heaven of the Sun, Shamash; 
the Moon, Sin; and Venus, or Ishtar; two of whom are represented on these seals. 
But on the way he was frightened and the strength of the eagle failed, and they 
fell to earth. ‘That the eagle was killed is not likely, for we know that later he was 
caught and captured by the serpent in punishment for eating the serpent’s young. 
Etana we hear of later as inhabiting the lower world, but whether he was killed 
by his fall is not clear. We may with some confidence presume that the designs 
on the cylinders we have been considering add something to the story of Etana as 
told in the texts thus far found. 

There may be some elements of these designs in fig. 361. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


ALLATU UNDER THE BENT TREE. 


An extremely interesting and very peculiar scene is shown on a large concave 
cylinder of black serpentine in the Louvre (fig. 399).* While this seal is so gener- 
ally in the style of the older Chaldean art that there can be no doubt of its authen- 
ticity, 1t yet presents features not to be paralleled elsewhere. The sun, or star, for 
it is impossible to tell whether it represents Shamash or Ishtar, is of very unusual 
size and shape, as if it had been carelessly or ignorantly made, while the attitude 
or the action of all the other figures has but one parallel. It contains two scenes, 
both unusual. In one a bearded god sits on a stool before a tripod with ox’s feet,} 
on which is a broad open vase from which rises smoke or flame. The god has in 
one hand a rod, and holds the other hand against the flame as if to warm it or to 





accept the smoke of the offering. This action seems to express the idea of the pleas- 
ure the gods had in the “sweet savor”’ of the fumes of their sacrifice and incense. 
He has on his head the elaborate high turban, and the lower part of his body is 
clothed with a flounced skirt. In front of his head is an apparently unskilful repre- 
sentation of the sun, with lines radiating single or double from the center, instead 
of having alternating rays and streams. ‘This peculiarity, however, does not seem 
enough to cast suspicion on the cylinder which otherwise appears quite genuine. 
Before the god and his tripod altar stands a worshiper in a long, simple, fringed 
garment, and with a shaved head, as in the Gudea sculptures. In his lifted hand 
he holds an uncertain object, which may be a vase of the shape of a cornucopia, 
or it may even be a bone of an offering which he lifts to his mouth, as if he were 
feasting with his god. Separated from this scene by a short linear inscription is 
the second very extraordinary scene. A slender tree, with branches, is bent com- 
pletely over till its top touches the ground, to form a sort of protecting tent, or 
canopy, over a kneeling goddess. On her head is the high turban; her hair falls 
in a tress behind her back; she wears a long simple garment that falls from her 
shoulders, and she reaches forward her hand towards an approaching figure. This 
is a bearded god who appears to rise from the ground, of whom only the upper 
part of the body is seen. On his head is the same high-pointed headdress, or turban, 





* This cylinder is figured in de Sarzec’s “ Découvertes,” 30 bis, No. 17; also discussed by Heuzey, “ Origines,” pp. 192, 
193; Maspero, “‘ Dawn of Civilization,” p. 681. 
¢ For a seal with ox’s feet, see fig. 30. 


149 


150 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


with a ring at the top (is this ring seen elsewhere?) that is worn by the kneeling 
goddess. He reaches to the goddess a club or mace, which she seems ready to 
accept. Outside of the bent tree stands a strong, bearded god or demigod. His 
headdress is of two horns simply and unlike that worn by the god and goddess 
under the tree. He wears a short, flounced garment which reaches from his waist 
to his knees. With one hand he seizes a branch of the tree over the goddess’s head, 
and in the other he holds an ax, which rests against the tree, as if to cut it. One 
foot is lifted and rests on the top of the tree which touches the ground. 

As I have said, this cylinder seems to be genuine. If not, it is the work of a 
most consummate forger, and it is difficult to imagine that a forger could conceive 
so elaborate and admirable and novel a design. The only things about it which 
might arouse suspicion are the drawing of the sun and the little ring at the top 
of two headdresses. The cylinder is in good condition, except for a small 
abraded portion where the smoke or flame rises from the vase before the seated 
god. When I examined this cylinder in the Louvre, through the courtesy of M. 
Heuzey, I thought I was able to trace the smoke from the hand past the abraded 
portion, clear to the vase. 





As Heuzey has said, the story of a god attacked is not unfamiliar in mythology. 
He regards this cylinder as giving us a representation of a myth not yet found in 
the inscriptions. The goddess might seem to be protected, or hidden, under a 
tree which has bent over to conceal her. The attacking figure, perhaps a demigod 
like Gilgamesh, is not trying to bury her under the tree, but, as his ax shows, is 
trying to cut away the tree which hides her. But she will be protected by the god 
who comes as her champion and who holds the war-club in his hand. Such has 
been taken to be the interpretation of this picture, from the design itself, which 
is of extraordinary vigor and complexity. The other scene of worship is of special 
interest also, because we see that the seated god is expressing his satisfaction with 
his worshiper, by accepting with his hand the odor or flame of the offering. 

I know of but one other cylinder of this type, a smaller and much less elaborate 
one, concave, and of green serpentine, belonging to the J. Pierpont Morgan Library 
(fig. 400). Here we have a seated deity, apparently a goddess, in a flounced gar- 
ment and with the high turban, under the bent tree. She has her hand raised. In 
front of her a bearded deity, with the same high headdress as the goddess, attacks 
the tree, apparently pulling it over rather than cutting it down. His raised foot 
reaches beyond the tree. From his shoulders there radiate rays. Behind this scene 
a worshiper stands with hand raised. I see in this cylinder no evidence that it is a 
forgery, although one must be constantly on his guard against forgeries that may 
have been copied from other cylinders or from figures published in books. I have 
never seen a complete forgery in stone of this variety, which would appear not to be 
accessible to forgers except as found in old cylinders themselves; and old cylinders 
that are badly worn are likely to be recut along the lines of the original engraving. 


ALLATU UNDER THE BENT TREE. 151 


It is not unusual to see black serpentine cylinders, or even shell cylinders, thus recut 
and so sophisticated as to ruin them, and the same might be done with the green 
serpentine of the cylinders of lower Babylonia. These two, however, have not 
been recut. 

This second example might seem to put in doubt the natural interpretation 
of the first one, from which it seemed that the attacking personage was trying to 
cut down the tree so as to reach the goddess protected by it; it would seem more 
likely that the purpose was to crush and kill the goddess. We also may judge 
from the rays from the god’s shoulders that he is some form of the Sun-god. Sha- 
mash, as we have seen, is very frequently so represented, as also with his foot thus 
lifted, on a mountain. But the Sun-god is usually represented in a long garment, 
which falls to his ankles and opens in front to expose the lifted leg. In neither of 
these cylinders is the god thus clothed. 

Inasmuch as this represents a Sun-god, it is more likely to be Nergal, and if 
so we can make a very plausible conjecture as to the meaning of the design, at 
least in part. We know from one of the Tel el-Amarna tablets * of a mythologic 
story according to which there arose a conflict between the gods of the upper air 
and those of Hades. Nergal had shown disrespect to Allatu, or Eres-ki-gal, queen 
of the lower world, who ordered him sent down for punishment. He attacked 
her in her covert, cut off her khuduba, then seized the goddess and was about 
to drag her from her throne and kill her, when she begged for mercy and offered to 
be his wife. From her he received the tablets of destiny and became supreme 
god of the region of the dead. It is possible that in these two seals we have the 
goddess in the lower world and the god bursting through the earth to reach her. 
In the first and more elaborate of the two we may have a second scene of the story 
also, the goddess delivering to her conqueror the scepter of her authority and 
kneeling before him as he enters her domain. We have a scepter much like it 
held by the goddess in fig. 215. This appears to me a more probable interpreta- 
tion than that which would have been drawn from the mere inspection of that 
cylinder alone. It is an important item of evidence which we draw from the second 
cylinder, that the attacking deity is a Sun-god, as shown by the rays, and that the 
difference in the headdresses of the two figures of a god has no significance. Until 
other light shall appear we may regard this scene as the conquest of Allatu and the 
lower world by Nergal. If this interpretation is correct the age of the story of the 
conquest of Allatu by Nergal is carried back to a considerably earlier period than 
was conjectured by Jastrow. 





* Jastrow, “Religion of Babylonia,” pp. 584-85; Winckler and Abel, “ Der Thontafelfund von El-Amarna,” nm, 164, 
165; Pinches, Proceedings Society of Biblical Archeology, xxv, pp. 215-218. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


THE GODDESS AND CHILD. 


The design of one person held in another’s lap is not unfamiliar in Eastern 
art. In Egypt we see occasionally a king represented with his wife in his lap. We 
also see Isis thus represented holding her son Horus. In a cylinder of the Hittite 
age (fig. 401) we see what is probably a god holding a goddess (?) in his lap. It 
appears to follow an Egyptian design. 

That so few of the early designs on the cylinders remind one of the Egyptian 
figured mythology seems strange, considering the evidence that comes from the use 
of the cylinder itself in the earlier history of Egypt, that there was, at their origins, 
a connection between the two civilizations. Scholars have been adventurous enough 
to find evidence in various other directions of such primitive relationship. But, 
















y 4 TU po 
Lt One 







¢ : wa 1 
; 


404 









( Vy 
oe 

(G 
oces 
401 
when we turn to the art of the earlier period of Babylonia, and indeed any of the 
art that preceded the Egyptian invasion of Asia in the eighteenth dynasty, we 
shall with difficulty find anything that directly reminds us of Egypt, unless it be the 
design of the mother and child. To be sure this is a very rare design, so rare that 
not one has ever passed through my hands for the great collection of the Metro- 
politan Museum. Only four such cylinders are known, belonging to four different 
collections, those of the British Museum, the Louvre, the de Clercq Collection, and 

the J. Pierpont Morgan Library. 

That in the British Museum is of shell and of archaic style (fig. 402). The 
mother holds the child in her lap, the child’s face turned towards her. There are 
three other figures, all female, of which the first beckons with one hand the two 
that follow, while with the other hand she points to the mother and child. Her 
face is turned towards the approaching worshipers, which might suggest that at 

152 






I ——=> 
SAAT EN 


THE GODDESS AND CHILD. 153 


the time this design was drawn the convention had not been adopted by which 
the attendant and directing figure was drawn with two faces to indicate that atten- 
tion was given both to the deity and to those that approach. In this case the attend- 
ant on the goddess 1s compelled to turn her face from the goddess, an attitude which 
later seemed to imply disrespect. The child is nude; the other figures are all 
dressed exactly alike, in garments of simple construction reaching to the ankles 
and folded in front, fringed at all the edges, and leaving the arms and feet bare. 
The hair is bound in a fillet, which holds it looped up behind, in a way usual for 
female figures of the very early period. ‘The features are quite distinctly drawn, 
not of the “bird” type, but with a sharp nose and thin protruding lips. 

A second one of this design is to be seen in fig. 403. This is of green serpentine 
(“porphyrie”’) and may be of a somewhat later period. The inscription accompany- 
ing the design appears to be quite as old as the period of Sargon I. Here the god- 
dess is more elaborately dressed than her two worshipers, in a flounced garment, 
and her hair hangs in a queue behind. The child faces her, with hand lifted, as if 
in an attitude of respect. M. Heuzey says (“Origines,” p. 93) that the figure in the 
lap of the goddess is not a child, as it is bearded. ‘This may be doubted, and the 
child’s attitude of respect with the hand lifted shows that it is not a full-grown 
god, while the fact that it is nearly nude (it may have a girdle) would suggest that 
it is not a king or worshiper of rank that is taken for protection into the lap of the 
goddess, as, in Hittite art, a deity folds his arm about the much smaller figure of 
the king. Only slaves of mature age are represented nude in Babylonian art, 
except, of course, as Gilgamesh and Zirbanit are nude. But the general modesty 
of the Babylonian art, in the matter of clothes, is very marked. We never see any 
display of phallism. ‘Iwo figures approach bearing offerings, one male, with a 
goat, and the other female, with a pail or basket; while behind the goddess a female 
figure kneels, in an attitude of worship, and seems to present a large vase on a 
tripod, while two other large vases are above her. 

The third cylinder known to me with this design is shown in fig. 404. It belongs 










to the Louvre.* Here we have a scene similar to the other two. The goddess holds 
the child who turns its face to its mother and who, as figured by Ménant and Heuzey, 
has a queue from the top of its head. An at- —-#-—¥__ 
perhaps a cook, has her hand on the top of a 
broad-bottomed vase on a tripod, as if taking \ 
something from it for presentation to the god- cos) us 
dess. ‘The vase is of the character naturally Enh 4 
used for cooking. Above are three slender mh m 
thing about this cylinder is the child’s queue. Heuzey calls attention to the Egyp- 
tian parallel, as we find the tress on the breast the sign of infancy and the mark 
of the infant god Horus. 

A fourth cylinder with this design belongs to the J. P. Morgan Library (fg. 
405). It differs from the others in that the child is clothed, perhaps in a flounced 


tendant presents a vase, and a kneeling figure, 
vases on a shelf. ‘The specially interesting a 





* Unfortunately, my notes do not show that I found this cylinder in the Louvre. I much regret it, as I should have 
much wished to examine the queue from the head of the child. In the drawing I am, therefore, compelled to follow Ménant, 
“ Pierres Gravées,” 1, p. 166, and Heuzey, “ Origines,” p. 93. 


154 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


garment. Unfortunately, the cylinder, of black serpentine, is considerably worn. 
As in figs. 403 and 404 there is an offering of the contents of a vase, but in this 
case the vase is in front of the goddess and we observe that the child’s face is not 
turned towards her. We have also the standing Shamash, with his foot lifted high 
on a mountain and holding his notched sword. The inscription 1s filiary: “ Ikrub- 
ilu, son of Lani.” 

Now, what is the meaning of this scene on these four cylinders? We may 
dismiss the Egyptian Isis and Horus, the Younger Horus, as he is called, inasmuch 
as we have in Babylonian mythology no parallel to the story of the wife and son of 
Osiris; and the connection of Asari, another name for Marduk, with Osiris, as 
suggested by Sayce, is not easily confirmed. Nor is there any more basis for the 
suggestion that the child may represent Dumuzi, or Tammuz, whom we do not 
know as an infant but as a lover of Ishtar, or a god of fertility, perhaps to be identi- 
fied with Ninib. Any son of any goddess might as well be suggested. This remains 
at present one of the problems of the mythologic art of early Babylonia to be settled 
by some further fortunate discovery. 

Yet we may make a plausible conjecture. The design of the mother and 
child is not quite unknown in early Chaldean sculpture. It appears in several 
statuettes described by Heuzey (fig. 406), but they really add nothing 
to our knowledge of the scene in question. ‘They represent * a simpler 
type, which gives us only the mother with a nursing child. This prob- 
ably represents a goddess, but even that is not quite certain. 

Perhaps, after all, the more likely supposition is that we have in 
these scenes a naive representation of the protection which the goddess 
gives to her worshiper. ‘This would account for the presence of the 
supposed beard and for the garment in which the personage in the 
lap is clothed in fig. 405. In the Hittite art the affection of the deity 
for the king is figured in a way not unlike. ‘The king, represented as 
a child, in comparison with the size of the god, is embraced by the 
deity who stands by him and puts his arm about him (fig. 777). The 
Babylonian or Assyrian thought is of the king conceived of as a child 
dandled and nursed by his goddess mother. ‘Thus Assurbanipal says: 
“A babe art thou, Assurbanipal, unto whom the Queen of Nineveh (Ishtar of 
Nineveh) hath bestowed thy kingdom. A meek babe art thou, Assurbanipal, whose 
seat is on the lap of the Queen of Nineveh. The abundance of the teat which 
is in thy mouth thou suckest, there thou hidest thy face” (Stephen Langdon, in 
“American Journal of Semitic Languages,” xx, p. 259). It is then the more prob- 
able conjecture that we have in these four seals the owner of the seal conceived 
of as a child, resting on the lap of his goddess-mother, just as Gudea addresses 
Bau-Gula as “the mother who produced him” (Jastrow, “Religion,” p. 60). 
interesting parallel to the protection given by a deity to his worshiper is seen in the 
Bowl of Palestrina (Perrot and Chipiez, “History of Art in Phenicia,” 11, fig. 267, 
Clermont-Ganneau, “La Coupe Phénicienne de Palestrina’), where a hunter in 
his chariot, attacked by a savage troglodyte, is enveloped, chariot, horses, and all, 
in the ates wings of the divine emblem. 











* See Heuzey, “Origines Orientales,” p. 5, fig. 3; “Catalogue des figurines de terre cuite du Musée du Louvre,” Nos. 
30, 31; “ Découvertes,” p. 254. 


CHAPTER XXV. 


ISHTAR. 


One of the cylinders that were first made known to scholars and one of the 
earliest is that one of the Rich collection (fig. 407) which gives us the seated Ishtar. 
A goddess in a flounced garment, with a high-horned headdress, sits on a seat 
ornamented with lions, and a lion is under her feet. Her most distinctive mark 
is the weapons that rise from her shoulders, alternate clubs and sickle-shaped 
scimitars. Before her are a crescent and a star, also an altar of peculiar construc- 
tion (see Chapter LXVI) apparently of bricks, on which is the head of aram. Three 
beardless figures approach in mii the middle one of which (perhaps masculine) 


Wee 


lata 





louie IX), Ne 
egal! CDs {minh 

Py ee OC} fem 
MO JS BER put 


407 408 
carries a victim for sacrifice. Behind them is a dog. An older cylinder, not so 
artistically designed and cut (fig. 408) belongs to the archaic period. Here the 
goddess is without her lions. She has on a two-horned headdress, a flounced 
garment, and the alternate clubs and scimitars rise from her shoulders. ‘Three 
figures approach in the attitude of worship. There is a lower register where we 
see four ducks swimming in the water, and as many fishes. Another excellent 
example is on an unfortunately broken cylinder belonging to the Morgan Collec- 
tion (fig. 409). This is of especial value, because it shows us the goddess with the 














fp Let) 





a0 
weapons, retaining the scimitar with its original form, which is a serpent like the 
Egyptian asp with the thick neck. The goddess is probably seated, but the broken 
cylinder does not allow us to be certain. There is a second two-horned female 
figure, also a worshiper with a goat. The remaining objects are too imperfect to 
be described. A fourth example appears in fig. 410. Here are three seated figures. 
One of them is Ishtar in her flounced dress and with her alternate clubs and scimi- 
tars from her shoulders. Before her appears to be an altar shaped like an hour- 
glass, beyond which two other female figures sit facing her. One of them seems 
to lift a large uncertain object in her hand. 


155 


156 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


A cylinder of an early period is shown in fig. 411, where the weapons about 
the goddess all end in clubs, without the alternate serpent scimitars. A wor- 
shiper, an attendant with a pail, and the seated god with streams also appear. 
This cylinder is figured in Ménant, “Pierres Gravées,” 1, p. 106, but the clubs 
are drawn as simple rays. 

These six cylinders are all that I know that bear the figure of the seated Ishtar 
with weapons from her shoulders. They are all of an early age. 

We have seen that Shamash with his rays from his shoulders is represented 
both as sitting and standing. The same is true of Ishtar. But we have no example 
from the oldest period of the standing Ishtar, unless it be of the goddess who accom- 
panies the god Inlil in his subjugation of the dragon and who stands on the back of 
a dragon (fig. 127). But we must also consider fig. 387, where there appears, with 
other gods, a standing Ishtar flounced, in a high headdress, with one foot and leg 
protruded from her garment, not raised or resting on any animal, and with alternate 
clubs and serpent-weapons from her shoulders. This cylinder has various unusual 
features. Such are the female attendant with the spouting vase, the ring in the 
stream from the altar, the single foot of Ishtar, and the lion’s skin, with lion’s paws, 










: 

U6} mitt > 4 i 
> iNOS Ail cathy 
US fh 3 2) mn 
RC ail Ja SK hit 
\ > Heryegtliatine a Ua 
| NG {| \ AA 

aa fe rere! 3 
TAVATAVGYATATATATUIRIBTAARATAT ANN tatath 








412 
fastened at the neck and worn by the god with the bow. This cylinder is so peculiar 
that its genuineness, in part, must be received with caution. ‘he only other case 
of a standing Ishtar of the supposed earlier period is shown in fig. 412, but this is a 
forgery.* For the cylinders representing Ishtar on a subject dragon, see Chapter VIII. 

The seated Ishtar passed early out of use on the cylinders, and was succeeded 
by the conventional form of the standing Ishtar, which distinguished her from Bau, 
who was always represented as seated. She is distinguished, in Babylonian art, 
by her head always en face, the weapons from her shoulders, the lions associated 
with her, and lifting in one hand the caduceus of two serpents with bulging necks, 
like asps, and a vase between them. She may carry the scimitar in her other hand. 
Her characteristic animal is the lion. We have seen the seated Ishtar with lions 
about her seat (or under her feet); so the later Ishtar sometimes stands on two lions, 
or in the more conventional form she rests one foot on a crouching lion, which is 
generally so reduced as to be hardly recognizable, as scarcely more than the head 
appears. On the monuments she is described as “on the lions’ (Lenormant, 
ee Berose, mal 1O). 

While she sometimes carries the scimitar of Marduk, the apxm of Perseus, 
her characteristic weapon, or emblem, is the caduceus. Both of these objects either 
originated in the serpent or were figured in the serpent form. ‘The weapons from 








* For a discussion of this cylinder see Athenaeum, March 10, April 7, April 28, June 2, 1900. 


ISHTAR. Las, 


her shoulders are no longer differentiated as scimitars and clubs, but are, rather, 
like sheafs of arrows rising from quivers. As she, however, never carries a bow, 
on Babylonian seals, as she does in Assyrian (Chapter xt), they can hardly be meant 
for arrows, but as conventional reminiscences of the weapons of the earlier seated 
Ishtar. 

Fig. 135 represents the period of transition to the conventional types of the 
Middle Empire. Here the goddess stands on two dragons, not of full size, as in 
figs. 127-133, but reduced. She is represented with the face in front view, with a 
long lock of hair falling on her shoulder, wearing a high headdress and a flounced 
garment, and holding in her hand the Babylonian caduceus. ‘There are no weapons 
from her shoulders ; they are replaced by the caduceus, which is itself a fearful 
serpent-weapon. She is thus represented as a god of conquest, of war. This 
practically requires us to identify her with Ishtar, under some one of her names, 
whether the more usual and strenuous Ishtar, or Ninni or Nana or Anunit. She 
is not to be identified with Bau or Gula, who is not a particularly warlike deity; 





nor can she be any one of the paler feminine reflections of the gods, like Belit or 
Aa or Shala. It can then only be Ishtar. This attribution is made certain by a 
bas-relief found by de Morgan in Persia (fig. 413). It is a monument of a king of 
Lulubi, an Elamite tribe. The flounced goddess is represented with clubs from 
her shoulders and presenting to the king two prisoners, one of whom is held by a 
ring through his lip. This can be nothing but the warlike Ishtar, the later goddess 
of Arbela. The accompanying archaic inscription reads: “Anubanini, mighty 
king, king of Lulubi, has placed his image, and the image of the goddess Ishtar on 
Mount Batir.”’ This may well belong to a period not much later than Gudea or 
Hammurabi, although the inscription looks earlier than either. Notice the turban 
of the king. 

We see the same goddess in fig. 415, although the upper part of the body is 
lost in the fracture, but the two lions are preserved. Other figures are a worshiper 
offering a goat before her, and behind her, under a cow suckling a calf, a servant 
carrying a pail with distinct legs, also the Babylonian Ramman-Martu, and Shala, 
and an inscription. For another admirable example of the goddess on two Howe 
see fig. 442, where also are Shamash, Aa, and two worshipers, one with each of the 


principal deities. 


158 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


In the Middle Empire Ishtar took the same form as represented in fig. 414, 
although generally the lion or dragon was still more reduced, or rather was crushed 
under her feet. She still carries the caduceus, but modified, also the serpent scimitar, 
which is common to her and Marduk, and, most characteristic of all, from each 
shoulder rises a sheaf of clubs. Other examples appear in figs. 416, 417. It is to 
be particularly noticed that she occasionally leads the lion by a cord in its nose, 
as Adad leads the bull (Chapter xxx). Fig. 418 may here be considered, in which 
the goddess carries a scimitar in her right hand, and in her left she holds, instead 
of the caduceus, a standard, with what appears to be the eagle of Lagash, while 
the cord to hold the lion is attached to her waist. Then we have two figures of 
Eabani seizing an ibex and the inscription “Shamash, Aa,” which has no relation 
to the design. 


y! 


pad J 


JURE: 





416 417 

Here we may mention 418a, which is very peculiar, as it has on it five goddesses 
and a figure like Gilgamesh presenting a goat in sacrifice. One of the goddesses is 
in the usual form of Aa-Shala, in profile and with both hands raised. The others 
are all en face. The only one of the goddesses whose dress is not in flounces stands 
on two animals which do not look like lions. One of them holds a forked rod in 
her hand. It 1s noticeable that the breasts are drawn and far apart as in the older 
art. Who these goddesses are it is quite impossible to say, as also why Gilgamesh 
should appear as a worshiper with an offering. 

I call attention to but one other cylinder, fig. 562, in which only the head of 
the deity is preserved, but which possibly represents the seated Ishtar, this time 
not on the conventional dragon, but perhaps on a lion, or perhaps on that mytho- 
logical animal which we see on the kudurrus attached to the seat of Marduk, in 
which case it would be that god. But this is not likely, as the cylinder seems too 
old for Marduk, who was a later deity. 

In comparison with this goddess we must bring a very archaic bas-relief figured 
and discussed by Heuzey (fig. 419, see “ Découvertes,” p. 209; “Catal. Antiq. 


ISHTAR. 159 


Chald.,” p. 119). Here we see a seated goddess, with face in front view, before 
whom a nude worshiper offers a libation from a vase with a nose or spout. Between 
the goddess and the worshiper is a stand with a curious plant, apparently, spring- 
ing from it, and on each side is a pendulous object which looks like a bunch of dates, 
but the plant is evidently not a palm-tree. ‘The vase might represent vegetable 
offerings of various kinds, while the worshiper offers a vase of wine or oil. This 
is to be compared with other representations where the appearance is rather of a 
flame from the altar following a libation of oil, as in fig. 399. Heuzey sees in this 





418 4180 
seated goddess Aa or Malkatu, consort of Shamash, but she appears to be differ- 
ently represented, as will be seen later, and the appearance of the face in front 
view and the rays connect her with Ishtar. The worn condition of the bas-relief 
and perhaps the restricted space do not allow us to see the ends of the rays, which 
appear as the clubs and serpent-scimitars in the art of this period as shown by the 
cylinders. Attention should also be called to a bronze statuette (fig. 420) which 
gives us the lower part of the body of a draped figure standing on a lion lying with 
his feet bent under him. This probably represents Ishtar, but it is valuable for little 
else than an indication of the care put on the elaborate ornamentation. 











| | 
le 


ye 






































Ni at 
Ai eet, Ui si nine 
¢ ee: i 











ne ay \ 
erat 
na St mew 

The various er forms or names of Ishtar were not differentiated in the 
Babylonian art. We have no separate representations that we can distinguish of 
Ninni, Nana, or Anunit, under whatever designation the evening and morning stars 
were worshiped. They were all the same planet, Venus, daughter indiscriminately 
of Anu, god of Heaven, where she shone, or of the Moon-god who ruled her sky. 
She was goddess of war as well as of love from the earliest times, and was so repre- 
sented with weapons of war. The story of her descent into Hades in search of the 
consort of her youth, Tammuz, tells us how richly she was dight, and how her gar- 


ments and her ornaments were successively stripped from her as she entered the 


160 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


seven gates of the lower world, and were restored to her as she returned. One 
observes that she is drawn on the cylinders as wearing a special sort of pectoral 
hanging from her neck and occupying the space on her breast that is covered in 
figures of male deities by the long beard, so that it 1s apt to be mistaken for a beard 
in the case of worn seals, or of the impressions of seals on tablets. Such has been 
the case with the impression on a tablet shown in fig. 421. This is a case in which 
M. Heuzey has been obliged to reconstruct the design from a number of broken 
tablets. He concludes that the deity is the god Ningirsu, from the inscription which 
tells us that the owner was a priest of that deity; but it is more likely that it is not 
a beard which is so drawn both in the figure of the seated god and of the flounced 
figure to the left with uplifted hands. The latter figure is always feminine, and so 
probably is the seated deity. ‘The lion belongs characteristically to Ishtar. But 
there remains the possibility that we have here not Ishtar but Bau, wife of Ningirsu, 
and that the same goddess is represented with a single lion on her seat, on fig. 229. 
Heuzey regards the object in the hand of the deity as the weapon of seven serpents. 
This cylinder is remarkable as the only case in which we find a two-headed eagle 
in Oriental art before the Hittite period. 





CHAPTER XXVI. 


THE NAKED GODDESS. 


It is not usual in Chaldean art to find a female figure unclothed. In a very 
early period we have a naked goddess accompanying Bel-Inlil on a dragon, but 
this is exceptional and archaic. ‘There is, however, one goddess who is always 
represented conspicuously nude. Since her identification by Lenormant she has 
been called Zirbanit, the wife of Marduk; and as Marduk took the rdéle of Inlil 
in the later Babylonian mythology, so Zirbanit may be supposed to have usurped 
the place of Belit of Nippur, which would connect her with the nude goddess of 
the dragons. 

Zirbanit is represented always as standing quite nude, and usually in front 
view, with her hands together under her breasts. She is slender, and has the ap- 
pearance of a statue. Indeed, a multitude of statuettes of this goddess are found, 
but most, or all, of a late and base period. On the later cylinders in the Hittite 


= 
= 
= 
= 
=| 
= 
= 
= 
| 
=| 
=| 


08! 





times the feminine traits are more accentuated: the abdomen and hips are larger, 
the navel is designated, the breasts are sometimes given, and the face is often in 
profile, or is left en face, but with very little delineation beyond the roll of hair each 
side of the head, suggesting the symbol of the goddess Ninkharshag or Belit. ‘The 
capillus veneris is represented by a triangle, often accentuated, as in fig. 422, and 
very much so on the later statuettes. This nude goddess does not make her appear- 
ance in art until after the time of Gudea, perhaps not before that of Hammurabi. 
She is never figured in any special relation to another deity. We can not there- 
fore assume that she is the consort of any god, that is, from the art-evidence. Occa- 
sionally she appears alone with a worshiper, as in fig. 423, but this is not usual. 
In fig. 424 we see her associated with a number of emblems of gods, the crescent 
of Sin, the thunderbolt over a bull representing Adad, the caduceus (probably of 
Ishtar), and a dancing figure. More usually she is associated with a number of 
gods. Such a case is fig. 425, where Ramman and Shala are the principal figures, 
and as emblems there are the sun and crescent, a fly, and a tortoise. But very 
11 161 


Loe SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


notable is the perhaps unique modesty of the goddess, who wears a short apron. 
It is quite unusual also that Ramman carries two wands. In fig. 426 the god hold- 
ing a weapon towards the inscription (““Shamash, Aa’”’) may be Marduk, and there 
are a goddess and worshiper the other side of the inscription. This is one of the 
cases in which the head of the nude goddess has degenerated into a vertical line and 
two locks, and the navel is drawn. This is of a somewhat late period. The column 
with a large triangular head behind Marduk appears to be the symbol of that god. 
In fig. 427 it is perhaps Marduk who carries the serpent scimitar, while the Baby- 
lonian Ramman is easily recognized, and there is a worshiper, beside two small 
nude figures, one reversed. In fig. 428 we again have Ramman and Shala, and the 
navel and breasts of the nude goddess are both distinctly marked. Over the dog 
is the caduceus, and there are other emblems. Fig. 429 gives us a not unusual 
case in which the goddess is diminutive beside the other deities. ‘This cylinder 
seems to be of a somewhat early period in the Middle Empire, and we notice that 
the head is only suggested, as in fig. 426. The other gods are Shamash and Aa, 
with worshipers. 





Occasionally in later cylinders the goddess appears in profile. Such a case 
we find in fig. 430. - There appears to be a second goddess, like Aa or Shala, and 
perhaps two female worshipers, unless one repeats the flounced goddess. ‘There 
are other emblems. 

The naked goddess appears occasionally in the later period with her hands at 
her side, as in fig. 431. She is not found in the Assyrian nor in the Persian art, 
which avoid nudity, but a corresponding naked goddess is prominent in the Syro- 
Hittite regions, as is shown in Chapter L. To this period, also, we may refer fig. 
432, where she stands on a stool and wears an enormous necklace. The numerous 
terra-cotta and alabaster figures of the naked goddess (fig. 433) generally belong 
to a late Babylonian period, but spread all over the Mediterranean coast and 
islands. She is not an original Babylonian deity, but was imported from the West 


with Marduk, Ramman-Martu, and Adad. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


MARDUK WITH THE SCIMITAR. 


The god with the scimitar I have been accustomed to identify with Marduk. 
The reason is very plain. It is a god of a form specially characteristic of the second 
empire, seldom found in the earlier art, and so belonging to the period when Marduk 
emerged, with the rise of Babylon and Hammurabi. His fight with the dragon 
Tiamat is considered with the Assyrian designs in Chapter xxxvi. He wears a 
long garment, like the standing Shamash, with one leg exposed in part through 
the opening of the garment in front, but the foot not lifted, as with Shamash, on a 
mountain or on the low stool which stands as a convention for a mountain; and he 
wears the high turban with several folds or horns. But his characteristic mark is 
his scimitar, occasionally resting on his shoulder, but usually held downward, so 
that the curved end nearly reaches the ground. It is held in the right hand, as 
impressed on the clay, the upper part being a straight shaft, which at the lower end 
makes a full curve, with the sickle shape with which we are familiar in the Greek 
art as carried by Perseus (fig. 434), and called the apa. This weapon appears 





435 
in somewhat varying forms, but was originally a serpent. In the older cylinders 


on which it appears carried by Marduk the form of the serpent is perfectly distinct. 
The swollen asp neck is exaggerated even more than in the Egyptian art. From 
that it degenerates into the mere sickle or scimitar in which we see it in the Assyr- 
ian art, where Marduk is fighting the dragon (figs. 564, 585, 588, 592). A similar 
Assyrian figure of the god with the deeply curved scimitar is seen in a standing 
statue of a god who may well be Marduk (fig. 435). In these cases the sense of the 
original serpent is quite lost. In the later Babylonian art it 1s also often forgotten, 
but there the curve is usually much less, just as the old art makes the crescent 
moon much less concave than it appears later. In Assyrian art we meet the same 
god also fighting an ostrich (figs. 587-595), or other fantastic creature which 
represents Tiamat or the spirit of disorder. It is the same form of serpent-weapon 
which we see doubled in the Babylonian caduceus; and the frequent cases in which 
we see a single vertical serpent in the middle period may very well represent this 
same weapon of Marduk, even as we so frequently see the thunderbolt of Adad. 
163 


164 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


We have an example of a standing god in a long robe bearing the serpent- 
scimitar on his shoulder in the remarkable cylinder of Dungi, the early king of Ur 
(fig. 436). Here the god, in a two-horned turban and a long plain garment, stands 
before a flaming altar, while the owner of the seal, followed by the goddess who 
presents him, stands in an attitude of worship. The god carries two weapons, one 
the serpent-scimitar, the head of the serpent being lost by the imperfection of the 
seal, and in the other hand a triple club, the three knobs of which indicate its ter- 
rible character. It must not be taken for a branch with fruit. With this must 
be compared fig. 32, another example of Dungi’s early period, where the same god 
carries no scimitar. 

So early an example of a god carrying the serpent weapon is very rare in the 
earlier art before Gudea and another example can hardly be found. We have it 
above in fig. 1305a, of the time of Gudea. Almost as rare in the middle period 
following Gudea is the figure of such a god with the caduceus lifted in his hand. 
An example we have in fig. 437. Here we have a god in dress and form like the 
standing Shamash, except that his foot is not lifted on an eminence and his weapon 
is the curved scimitar and not the notched sword. Facing him is a flounced god- 











Tada eel ncieslac Tepe 
aac al Be by nu thes | Se 5 
Z 


I 













a 3 
ry V ey gi 
2 ey pa te] vl rails ) 
Lz a 
BAe it = ta 
Se HY pp HM 1 


436 
dess, like Aa or Shala, which might suggest that the god whom she faces is Sha- 
mash, except that hers is a conventional type for almost any goddess that is to be 
related to a god. ‘The worshiper stands behind the goddess, if it be the worshiper, 
in a very abbreviated garment and a shaven head of the Gudea style, while behind 
the god are two servants bearing offerings in baskets. ‘he objects which fill the 
upper part of the space are of interest—a head, or mask, which may represent 
Ninkharshag (Belit), also three circular emblems, of which the central one is Ishtar, 
with radiating angles, and the two others appear to be rosettes. The style and 
workmanship of this cylinder, unless it be the rosettes, would seem to carry it back 
to a period earlier than Hammurabi, and so earlier than the preéminence of Marduk. 

Occasionally the god with the scimitar stands or lifts his foot on a grotesque 
animal. He stands on the animal in fig. 438. It is the same conventional animal 
which we shall see under the emblems of Marduk and Nebo, Chapter Lx1x, No. 
10, and he holds his scimitar in one hand. Before him stand a worshiper and the 
flounced goddess, and the accessories are a vertical serpent, a star, and a jackal 
or monkey-like animal. For a case much like this see fig. 562. Such another case 
appears in fig. 439. The god, in his long garment, holds his right hand against his 
breast, and in his left the scimitar hanging down in the usual way, and his foot 
is lifted high on a winged animal, which has the head meant for a serpent. Behind 


him is the upright serpent, which may be the symbol of Marduk, and which in this 








MARDUK WITH THE SCIMITAR. 165 


case has the thickened upper part of the body, such as we find in the serpent- 
scimitar. A small worshiper stands in the restricted space before the god, and a 
second worshiper behind the serpent. The remaining space is given to Eabani 
fighting a lion, and between them a vase over a “libra.” 

Another case in which it may be the same god who appears with his foot on 
an animal is shown in fig. 440. The abrasion of the stone does not allow us to see 
more than the head of the animal, which is like that of a lion. In his right hand 
the god carries the caduceus, with a vase between the two serpents, and from the 
same hand appears to pass a cord attached to the lion’s mouth, just as in the cases 


AL) VW \ 


i 


SS 


ts 
2 
'Z: 
Ze 
Z 
A 
A 
2 
A 
A 
AA 
B 
ZB 
'Z 





437 441 
where Adad holds a bull. This is very unusual, and it may be that this is not the 
god, but a goddess, for we have a similar case in fig. 415, where Ishtar leads a lion 
in leash. ‘The characteristic scimitar is in the left hand of the deity. The other 
figures are the owner in worship before the god and the servant behind the deity 
with a very narrow vase, which looks more like a thin wedge. In this case what 
might be taken for the beard may be meant for the pectoral of Ishtar. 


> ri 
AT 
<< 
= 
mis 


ai 


B 
A 


yh 





“442 

As examples of the more ordinary form of the god, simply designated by his 
scimitar in his left hand, we may give fig. 441. It is rather frequent on these seals 
to have, as in this case, both Shamash with his notched sword, and the god whom 
we call Marduk with his scimitar. We notice that the worshiper, or servant, with 
the offering is placed on an eminence, as if it were desirable to represent him as of 
diminutive size compared with the god. ‘That the elevation of this figure on an 
eminence is not intended to indicate any dignity appears from such a design as we 
see in fig. 442, where it is perhaps the worshiper before the goddess Ishtar who is 
thus made smaller than the goddess and stands on a similar eminence. The other 
scene gives us Shamash and a worshiper followed by the goddess Aa. The object 
carried in one hand in fig. 441 1s a slender vase, and in the other is what seems 


166 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


to have legs, as if it were a pail of metal or earthenware rather than a basket. Another 
cylinder much like these is shown in fig. 443; but the second god is not Shamash, 
but the god Martu, to be considered in Chapter xxx1. It is interesting, as in these 
cases where different gods are on the same seal, to be able, in our identification, 
to separate and distinguish the gods thus figured together. 

Two cases have been shown, in figs. 436 and 437, in which the god lifts the 
scimitar or serpent in his hand, instead of letting it hang down. Another such 
case is given in fig. 444. But here the god has his foot lifted, like Shamash, on an 
eminence; and yet this is not another form of Shamash, for we also have Shamash 
receiving worship. ‘The lifted foot, however, seems to suggest a Sun-god, such as 
was Marduk. The same god with serpent-scimitar seems to be repeated and in 
connection with yet another god, this time Adad, in fig. 445. We have here the same 
small attendant on an elevated stand that we have seen in figs. 441, 443. 

As has been said, the god with the curved scimitar is scarcely to be found in 
the earlier Chaldean art. He appears in the period of Hammurabi and later. 
The god carrying his scimitar on Dungi’s seal is probably a predecessor of Marduk, 
perhaps Bel. His weapon is hardly carried by any other god, although it is also 
carried by the goddess Ishtar. He is not one of the more frequently appearing 
deities on the cylinders, not nearly so frequent as Shamash or Ramman. That he 
is to be identified as Marduk depends very largely upon the fact that the god who 
fights the dragon, in its later Assyrian modifications, is evidently the same god 
and the scimitar is his characteristic weapon. Further, the fact is important that 
he hardly appears until about the time of Hammurabi. He is one of the late gods 
in art, like Ramman. Where in the seal of Dungi (fig. 436) we see a god carrying 
this serpent-weapon on his shoulder we may regard it as the Elder Bel, supplanted 


later by Marduk. 





CHAPTER XXVIII. 


GOD WITH FOOT ON VICTIM. 


Among the cylinders of an early period, we considered in Chapter 1x those 
which show us a Sun-god, probably Nergal, assaulting an enemy and pushing him 
against a mountain. We recognized in him Nergal, as the hot sun driving away the 
clouds. Perhaps too closely connected with that mythologic design to be radically 
separated from it are the cylinders now to be considered. ‘They give us a god with 
his foot on a prostrate naked enemy lying on his back and lifting his hand in fear 
and petition. The god is bearded and wears a short garment, girded about his 
middle, which leaves his legs exposed. In one hand he carries a sheaf of weapons 
which radiate and end in some sort of protuberance. ‘They might be considered as 
clubs, or sometimes arrows, but more likely they were not meant for any particular 
sort of weapon, but rather to indicate the hundredfold weapon which gods some- 
times carried. ‘The other hand is raised to smite, and holds a weapon, such as a 
scimitar. The god does not wear the two-horned or several-horned turban, but 
a simpler turban with the band about the bottom. Unlike the god considered in 
Chapter 1x, who seemed to be an early form of such a god as Nergal, this god 
wears the short garment, such as we shall see worn by Ramman, or Adad. These 


cylinders belong to the Middle Babylonian Empire. 






— 



















Je, & 
MME es 
——— 





A characteristic example is seen in fig. 446. Here the sheaf of weapons looks 
somewhat like clubs. Facing the god is a second god, perhaps, clad in precisely 
the same way, in the attitude of Ramman, except that the hand to his breast holds 
no rod or scepter, and the hand behind him holds downward the scimitar. ‘This 
figure is duplicated behind the filiary inscription, which seems to suggest that it is 
not a god. We remember that the god usually holding this attitude and weapon 
wears a long garment. The fact that he is accompanied by an attendant carrying 
a pail and vase also seems to support the conclusion that it is a human figure and 
not a god. But the attitude of dignity rather befits the god, and in the next figure 
we have what seems certainly Marduk occupying the same relative position. Why 

167 


168 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


the attendant is placed on an eminence is probably because it was desired both 
to keep the upper line even and to represent the servant as smaller and thus of a 
lower dignity. Much like this, with the god’s foot on his victim’s body, is fig. 447. 
The god holds the serpent-scimitar, and in the other hand the circle of weapons, 
which here have a semicircular end, as if they might be the heads of arrows. 
‘There are a crescent and three lines of inscription of an early period. 

Another example is seen in fig. 448. The god is precisely the same, only the 
turban is better drawn and the sheaf of weapons look more like arrows, but the 
attitude of the victim is different. The god Marduk before him has on his usual 
long robe and his horned hat and carries his scimitar. Also the Sun-god Shamash 
stands in his usual attitude, and before him are a worshiper in respectful attitude 
and also the sun in the crescent. Another cylinder very much like the preceding 
is seen in fig. 449, where, instead of Marduk with his scimitar, we have a god in 
a short garment and with a bow over his shoulder, who lays his hand on the head 
of the crouching figure, possibly for protection. The remainder of the design is in 
two registers, and in each two lions attack two ibexes. Yet another is fig. 450, where 
the second design gives us the seated Shamash with a worshiper and the goddess 
Aa. Cylinders of this type, although not very numerous, could yet be multiplied. 
We have some variations. One such is in fig. 451 where, instead of holding in one 
hand the sheaf of weapons, the god grasps the victim by the arm. The remainder 
of the design is the same, the god with the bow and the lions attacking the ibexes 
(only one ibex above), but in the space not occupied by the weapons is a sheep. 
Somewhat similar is the design in fig. 452. Here the god and his victim are smaller 
subordinate figures, and the victim seems to be in front view, like Gilgamesh. 
The larger figures give us the usual Ramman and his wife Shala, also Zirbanit; 
and the subordinate emblems that fill up the remaining spaces give us figures of 
the goat-fish and the man-fish, the head of Ninkharshag-Belit, a fly, an ibex seated, 
and the sun in a crescent. _ 

If the god whom we have seen in Chapter 1x pushing his cloud-enemy against 
the mountains and in deadly conflict with him is Nergal, god of the hot and 
destructive sun, we may see in this god of the Middle Empire the conventional 
form replacing an archaic form of the god. This is a purely Babylonian figure of 
a god, not taken from the west like the figures of Ramman and Adad, and, we may 
probably add, Marduk and Zirbanit, and is therefore to be considered the normal 
succession, simply conventionalized, of the older and freer form of Nergal, just as 
we have the Shamash rising over the mountains conventionalized into the Shamash 
of the middle period with his foot on a low stool. 





CHAPTER XXIX. 
THE DRAGON SWALLOWING A MAN. 


In this chapter are included illustrations of an occasional design which appears 
on the rather thick hematite cylinders that began to come in use apparently towards 
the end of the older period, before the time of Gudea. It gives us a naked victim 
on one knee attacked by a dragon, occasionally a lion, which opens its mouth to 
take in the victim’s head. We have such a one in fig. 453. On the other side the 
victim is threatened also by a rampant lion. Another lion opens his mouth to take 
in the head of an ibex, and in the spaces are another small lion and a turtle. These 
hematite cylinders are often much worn by usage and time. Another example is 
fig. 453a where the dragon seems ready to swallow the kneeling figure, who turns 






UW, 
\ 
“My, 






454¢ 453¢ 

his head back to see a lion which also attacks him. Also a worshiper presents a 
kid to the standing Shamash. Yet another is fig. 453). Here the victim attacked 
by the dragon kneels on a mountain. Gilgamesh kneeling on a lion lifts another 
lion over his head, and a lion fights with a human-headed monster with lion body. 

Another example of this type is seen in fig. 453c. It is remarkable in that it 
includes the two kinds of dragon, one of the older type swallowing a man, and the 
other of the later type, winged and with the long tail, more like that which accom- 
panies Marduk and Nebo, but the head is here plainly not that of a serpent, but of 
a lion. We also see Eabani fighting a lion. There are two small animals, one of 
which seems to be the very unusual fox. In fig. 4546 it is an ibex which the dragon 
attacks and a lion which attempts to swallow the man, while Gilgamesh and Eabani 


169 


170 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


are in the attitude of wrestling. In fig. 454a the dragon and the lion are in the 
fighting attitude, while Eabani lifts a standard surmounted by the crescent moon 
and the included sun. 

We should probably include here the cylinder shown in fig. 454c, for these are 
not vultures ready to devour the slain, but dragons with lion’s heads. It may be 
that the god is driving them away in answer to the appeal of their victim, as so 
often in the prayers and charms that have been preserved. There are two other 
divine figures, one the Gilgamesh with streams. In fig. 454 Ramman faces Shala 
as usual, and between them, under the head of Belit or Ninkharshag, we have 
the dragon devouring an ibex as in fig. 453. 

One is inclined to regard the dragon as one of the evil spirits of which the 
Babylonians were so much afraid and against which they composed so many 
charms. At the same time the mountain on which the victim kneels in fig. 453) 
and the lion which is associated with the dragon suggest that we may have here 
another representation of the storm-clouds dispersed by the Sun-god Nergal, for 
we know that Nergal was conceived of as a lion and figured with a lion’s head. 
But it would seem that he was also figured as a dragon and so he appears on the 
back of the remarkable funereal bronze tablet described by Clermont-Ganneau in 
his “L’Enfer Assyrien.” ‘The goddess of the lower world on the face of the tablet 
can be hardly anything other than Allatu, and the figure which covers the back 
side, with the head of a lion and the feet and legs of an eagle, as we see it in the 
representation of Tiamat, would seem to be her consort Nergal. Nergal is also 
closely related to Girra (Dibbara), who is a monster. We may then with some 
probability regard these scenes as showing us one of the phases of Nergal, who 
destroys the cloud enemy and who also rules and destroys in the lower world. 


CHAPTER XXX. 


ADAD LEADING A BULL. 


In the chapter on Ramman and Shala we shall consider the fact that the god 
Martu there recognized as Ramman is not to be confounded with the god who has 
seemed to be Adad and who carries a thunderbolt and leads a bull. In figs. 460, 
464, 478, 479, and 482 both gods are represented on the same seal, and so were 
regarded as separate gods. ‘The god with thunderbolt and bull appears late in the 
Babylonian art, as does Martu, not till about the time of Gudea, and he is occa- 
sionally, but not frequently, found in the period following Hammurabi. As early 
an example as any is to be seen in fig. 338. 

This god we see in fig. 455. He wears a long open garment and has one foot 
raised and the leg is bare, exactly as in the case of the standing Shamash. He also 
wears the high-horned turban of Shamash. But while the standing Shamash, whom 
we have considered in Chapter x11, has his raised foot on a conventional mountain, 
this god rests his foot on a bull, or also stands entirely on the bull, while his lifted 
foot is on the bull’s neck or head. ‘This bull he leads by a leash attached to a ring 





in its nose. In the same hand, or connected by the leash, he holds up usually a 
bident thunderbolt, which may also become a trident. In fig. 455 this thunderbolt 
is omitted. The other hand may be folded across his breast, or it may carry another 
thunderbolt, or a weapon, presumably a scimitar, over his head. In fig. 455 the 
bull is unusually well developed, so as to show the ring in its nose. The other acces- 
sories are the worshiper, his servant with the pail or basket and a slender vase; 
also the sun in the crescent. 

In fig. 456 the god standing on the neck of the bull holds up a thunderbolt in 
each hand, and the cord which holds the bull seems to end in a ring. There is also a 
second deity, in a square hat and carrying two crooks. This deity, who occasionally 
appears with one crook, is a goddess, if we may judge from the square hat, which 
characterizes the Hittite goddesses, and from the diverging lines of the necklace, 
which might be mistaken for a beard. But such a pectoral is worn also by Ishtar. 
Similar to this is the representation of the same god in fig. 457 where he carries in 
one hand the thunderbolt and the leash by which he leads the bull, and folds the 
other arm to his breast. With him is a second similar god with his foot on a different 
kind of animal and carrying a peculiar scepter. The other accessories are a vase 
and a “libra” and the sun in a crescent. It is not easy to identify the second deity. 

171 


172 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Perhaps more frequently this god leading the bull and carrying a thunderbolt 
holds a weapon over his head. Such a case we see in fig. 458. In this case it is 
clear that the weapon held over his head is the same scimitar as we have seen car- 
ried by Marduk. ‘The bull appears to be of the later humped-ox species, which 
came late into familiar use from India. We see it generally in the Sassanian 
period considerably later. ‘There is a flounced figure, a small kneeling figure, 
a small monkey-like animal, and a small star. Another case in which the god 
holds the weapon over his head we see in fig. 482 in the chapter on Ramman 
and Shala. Behind the god on the bull are the three large dots which probably 
mean the symbol of Sin, the god Thirty, or the moon. Fig. 460 also seems to 
be late, and the bull is very slender. Ramman is also figured. In fig. 461 the 





god rests his foot on the hump of the bull, with his thunderbolt in one hand and 
probably a scimitar in the other. With him on the cylinder is Zirbanit on a 
stand, and Gilgamesh and Eabani are also seen. Another is shown in fig. 462, 
where the god swings a club over his head. Another scene shows a god, probably 
Shamash, and Aa, and a worshiper carrying a goat. In the field are numerous 
emblems, the sun in the crescent, two heads, one that of Belit, the vase without 
the “libra,” two animals, also Zirbanit and a small dancing figure. Yet another 
interesting seal is shown in fig. 463. Here, if we 
can trust Cullimore’s drawing, the horns of the 
bull are peculiar. But we have an important 
feature in the three slain victims of the god. 
There appears occasionally a god with the 
fH thunderbolt, leading by a leash an animal not a 
~~ qa, Dull, which may or may not represent the same 
deity. Such a case we see in fig. 465. ‘This may be, it is true, not a Babylonian 
seal, but a seal from one of the outlying countries. Here it is the same god with 
one hand on his breast, but the animal he leads would be a lion if its tail were not 
so imperfect. ‘The other figures and the whole seal are so peculiar that, while the 
influence is Babylonian, it hardly seems of Babylonian origin. 
In the case, however, of fig. 464 we seem to have a purely Babylonian seal 
that might go back nearly or quite to the time of Gudea. Here a god clothed with a 
headdress and short garment, exactly like Ramman, holds a scimitar over his head, 





ADAD LEADING A BULL. Dies 


and stands on a winged monster that might be patterned after a lion but for its 
short tail. 

In this connection we may show for comparison the seal in fig. 466 which is 
semi-Assyrian in character, where the god stands on what seems to be a lion, and 
holds in one hand a scimitar and by the other holds the lion in leash, and also a 
ring, which may be a loop of the leash, but the god is not holding a thunderbolt. 
This may be compared with types of deities on animals which we shall have to 
consider when we treat of Assyrian seals. 

Now what deity or deities we have been finding on these seals it is not easy 
to say. One would naturally conclude that the god with the thunderbolt must be 
Ramman or Adad, even although we shall find it conclusively indicated in the next 
chapter that Ramman is the god in a short garment and low, banded cap, with one 
hand behind him and the other holding a mace; while this god has a high-horned 
turban, a long garment, and carries a thunderbolt and has his foot lifted on a bull 
which he leads by a leash. So far as the art is concerned, the two usually seem 
mutually exclusive. Indeed, we have noted cases in which the usual Ramman 
appears on the same seal with the possible Ramman-Adad on a bull. He thus 
appears in fig. 465 on a winged lion or dragon, with the short-skirted god. It is so 
natural to conclude that the god with the thunderbolt must be Ramman-Adad, 
the god of thunder and storm, that we are bound to raise the question whether two 





separate gods, separately figured, neither of which appears in the earliest art, and 
both of which are thus of foreign origin, could originally have been different gods, 
perhaps from different countries, and both later identified as the same under the 
name of Ramman or Adad. We seem to know that Ramman and Adad are the 
same in the later Assyrian texts, but mythology is full of cases in which different 
gods of different nations have been identified. Thus the Roman gods have all 
been identified with Greek divinities with which they had originally no relation. 
There is reason to believe that the Babylonian god’s name was Ramman, while the 
Syrian name of Adad prevailed in Assyria. 

It might be possible that some native Babylonian deity is here represented, 
either a later god like Marduk or a new representation of an old god like Nergal, 
or, indeed, some one of the many local gods that became identified with ruling 
divinities. ‘The dress of the god, the high turban, the long garment with protrud- 
ing leg and lifted foot, of course suggests Shamash, although the scimitar belongs 
to Marduk, and the thunderbolt, the leash, and the bull are new. But the thunder- 
bolt, in one case in another form, is very old. We have seen it in figs. 127, 134, 
where the goddess on a dragon holds a thunderbolt. But here it is a god and not 
a goddess who carries the thunderbolt, and similarly it is a god rather than a god- 
dess who stands occasionally on a lion or a dragon. The bull, it is true, we have 
seen related to a god in figs. 317, 318, but leaping on the seated god’s knees. We 
recall that in the famous seal of Sargon a deity is giving water to a buffalo. 


174 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


We have, however, pretty clear indications, as we shall see when we come to 
consider in Chapters XL and xtvur the Assyrian Adad and the Hittite Adad-Teshub, 
and compare with them the Vested God, as discussed in Chapter xLv11, from what 
source these two separate representations of Ramman, or Adad, came. Under 
whatever name, the god with the thunderbolt seen in this chapter came from the 
north and west and is related to the Assyrian and Syrian Adad and the Hittite 
Teshub, while the Ramman of the next chapter came from the Vested God. 

The god in a long garment, with thunderbolt and leading or standing on a bull, 
may probably be Ramman-Adad under a second form, as we shall see him in the 
Assyrian and Hittite cylinders. The god clothed like Ramman, with scimitar, 
thunderbolt, and dragon, of fig. 464 is certainly not Ramman-Martu, for the two 
appear on the same seal, neither is he the genuine Shamash, for the same reason, 


i 

PLE L 
7 
\ oFS 
TTT Thal 4 
SS ad Need 
‘ 


and his short garment seems to forbid us to identify him as Marduk. He also 
must be left in uncertainty. We have in these seals problems to be left for further 
light. In fig. 467 we have the god with a thunderbolt leading the bull, with the 
goddess who is usually seen with the Babylonian Ramman (Shala) and three lines 
of inscription. But before the god’s thunderbolt is the character for god, and the 
inscription gives the worshiped god as Adad. 

Not infrequently the god is designated by the thunderbolt over the bull, or 
by the thunderbolt alone, while the god himself is not represented. In fig. 468 
the triple weapon is over the bull, and the conventional goddess is repeated for 
symmetry. In fig. 470 we have the thunderbolt alone, and the gods Shamash 
(probably) and Ramman. In fig. 469 also the thunderbolt stands without either 
its god or the bull, and we have no figure except that of Ramman. But in this case 
a later owner has erased one line of inscription and part of the design, and on the 
erased part put the thunderbolt and the crescent. 


469 








We may add fig. 470a, in which, while the inscription, “Shamash, Aa,” doubt- 
fully suggests that the god is Shamash, and his foot is on the mountain of Shamash, 
his weapons are those of Adad. The rude facture of this cylinder suggests that it 
comes from an outlying province. 

In an article in The Academy of May 11, 1895, Dr. Bonavia suggests that the 
“thunderbolt” held by the god Ramman is derived from a pair of horns fastened 
to a sacred tree. For this conjecture there is no evidence in art; and he is also mis- 
taken in imagining that “the thunderbolt held in Ramman’s hand has a straight 


ADAD LEADING A BULL. Lie 


middle prong, while the two side prongs are wavy.” The prongs are usually zig- 
zag rather than wavy; and the middle prong is not straight. Dr. Bonavia seems 
to have confounded the thunderbolt with the caduceus often carried by Ishtar, 
and less often by a male deity. This we have seen in Chapter xxv. 

The bellowing bull was probably related to Adad to represent thunder, just as 
the god’s weapon represented lightning. This deity, who is also the Hittite Teshub, 
became the Jupiter Dolichenus later worshiped in the Hittite region, who had a 
shrine near Aintab; see Roscher, s.v. “ Dolichenus”’ (fig. 471). This shows how each 
nation in adopting another nation’s god changed its weapons and style. The Baby- 
lonian-Adad carries thunderbolts while the Hittite Teshub carries other weapons. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 


RAMMAN AND SHALA. 


One of the gods most frequently figured on the cylinders wears a short gar- 
ment to his knees, stands firm on both feet, with the right hand behind him and 
with his left holding a short wand, or more likely club, to his breast. In fig. 425 he 
carries two wands. His headdress is not usually horned, but is the close, round 
turban with a band at the bottom holding it about the head, familiar as used at 
the time of Gudea. His beard is long and is likely to be a little spread at the 
end, as if to show that the ends curled up. With him almost always appears the 
goddess whom we take to be the conventional form of goddess, assigned to any 
god, and herself colorless. She has the high-horned turban, the long, flounced gar- 
ment, a long queue falling nearly to the ground, and stands in an attitude of respect 
before her god, with both hands raised. This same form of goddess we have seen 
with the sitting and standing Shamash, and she may appear, in Chaldean or Baby- 
lonian art, with any other god. With these seals, which we may suppose to be of 
the style affected by the common people and which are usually of hematite, we 
very frequently find simply the god and goddess facing 
each other, perhaps with the frequent filiary inscription, 
and often with simply the name of a god and goddess, 
“Ramman, Shala,” just as we have found the inscription 
“Shamash, Aa” so frequent on the cylinders on which 
we have recognized Shamash to be figured. The filiary 

#2 inscriptions may contain the name of any god as wor- 
shiped by the owner. We may suppose that the engraver kept a stock of seals for 
sale, ready to be filled out with the name of any purchaser, and some already 
engraved with the names of the deities represented. 

An illustration of the usual style, with filiary inscription, is shown in fig. 472. 
Here one will notice the armlet on the god’s left arm, as also the knob of the club 
at its upper end. It is not necessary to multiply 
cases in which we find precisely the same god 
and goddess, often without any inscription or 
other figure or emblem. ‘The frequent inscrip- 
tions with ““Ramman Shala,” we see in fig. 474, 
or we may read, instead of Ramman, the equiva- 
lent syllabic “Martu,” god of the West. A cyl- 
inder whose owner must have been a peculiarly 
devout worshiper of this god is seen in fig. 473. 
It has two registers, which are just alike. Ramman appears three times in each, 
twice with a worshiper and once with Shala. There are seven scattered lines of 
inscription on each register. The cylinder may be of the Kassite period. 

As has been said, we frequently find the name of Ramman engraved on these 
seals, either simply with his name and that of his consort, or he is mentioned as the 

176 






aa EO, 
EEE s> 
== = 








RAMMAN AND SHALA. eAg 


god worshiped by the owner of the seal. Thus, in the collection of de Clercq, there 
are 25 inscribed cylinders on which the only figures are those of the god and god- 
dess, with, in some cases, that of a worshiper. Of these 25, five have simply the 
inscription ‘Ramman, Shala,” or “Ramman, Son of Anu,” and four add to the 
name of the owner the fact that he is a worshiper of 
Ramman. One of these bears the name “ Ramman- 
adri, servant of Ramman.” But four others indicate 
that the owner was a worshiper of Sin, three were 
worshipers of Ninib, and two of Nebo. Besides these, 
two of the cylinders add a small figure of the naked 
goddess Zirbanit, one of which records that the wor- 
shiper, a woman into whose name Ramman enters, is a worshiper of Ramman; 
and in the other case the owner is a worshiper of Ninib. Thus out of these twenty 
cases, ten are devoted to Ramman. In this connection we may refer to fig. 475, 
where the figure of Ramman in slightly different attitude is actually engraved within 
the inscription of the god’s name, and that of Shala, but much resembling Zirbanit, 
within that of the goddess. Here can be no doubt whatever; such a case conclu- 
sively proves that the god and goddess thus figured are Ramman and Shala. It 
were much to be desired that other gods were so conclusively identified. 

Beyond this identification little further need be done than to illustrate what 
are some of the combinations of Ramman with other gods. A more than usually 





a, 





coarse example, and probably quite late, appears in fig. 476. Here there is a 
diminutive figure of the nude goddess, while the sign for deity is attached to each 
of the larger figures of Ramman and Shala, but the deities are not specified by name 
as in the previous case. ‘This is sufficient to prove that the female figure is that of 
a goddess, and not of a priestess, as usually supposed. ‘The inscription shows that 
this cylinder belonged to a slave-catcher, according to Oppert. Another illustra- 
tion of Ramman and Shala with other deities is given in fig. 477, which shows a 
figure like Gilgamesh, a caduceus, a squat or dancing figure, and a small animal. 

Two other cases are particularly of value because of the presence with Ramman 
of the northern Adad, who is also identified with 
Ramman. In fig. 478 we see also Ishtar, Adad, 
and a worshiper before Shamash. In fig. 479 only 
Adad appears with Ramman and Shala. In fg. 
480 we have also a female deity, perhaps Gula-Bau, 
but with the unusual rod and ring held in her hand. 
There is also a worshiper with a goat elevated on 





478 


a stand. In fig. 481 the goddess, who may be either Aa or Shala, appears with both 
Shamash and Ramman, and so may represent either goddess. We also have, in 
small figures, Gilgamesh in profile on one knee stabbing a lion, while behind him 


12 


178 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


is a second standing figure; and under them two figures of Eabani holding between 
them a caduceus, which is an unusual feature. There are also a worshiper carry- 
ing a slender vase and pail, a head, a crook, and a monkey-like figure. With this 
may be compared fig. 213, on which also both Shamash and Gilgamesh appear 
with Ramman, but here there is no doubt that the goddess is Shala, as a worshiper 
stands before Shamash. 


Mm | an 
eid KOM 
isi Pama ee 
PH) MOT =p 





We have remarked that this form of the god Ramman does not clearly 
appear before the time of Gudea. It is rare for it to appear before the time of 
Hammurabi, frequent as it is after this period. I do not remember to have seen it 
on any of the case tablets of the time of the kings of Ur and of Gudea. That 
Ramman was a western god, imported from the north or the west, is accepted and 
his frequent designation as Martu is evidence of it. Whatever may have been the 
mythological confusions and identifications of the gods, it is clear that in art the 
form of Ramman as here given is kept quite distinct from that of the god of the 
thunderbolt, the Adad of Syria, the god who leads the bull or composite animal by 
a thong, who is also often seen on the cylinders of the Middle Empire, and, with 


considered in the last chapter. That the two were 
distinct appears also from such seals as are shown 
in figs. 478, 479, where the Ramman we are con- 
sidering, or Martu, appears together with Adad, as 
usual with one hand brandishing a weapon over his 

s77~ head, and in the other hand holding the thunder- 
bolt and the leash by which he leads a bull or dragon. Similarly in fig. 482 we 
have the two gods side by side and sharply distinguished. 

In fig. 477 we have noticed the wand-like weapon carried by the god, having 
somewhat the shape of a double hammer. We see it more clearly in the shape of 
a hammer in fig. 483. The weapon looks foreign, but is characteristic, as is also 
the round, banded hat or cap. 

While the evidence seems pretty clearly to make this god Ramman, it will 
bear consideration that we have no definite representation of Nebo, and that Nebo is 
designated as god of the scepter, or staff. Yet the resemblance to the Hittite Vested 
God of Chapter xLv1I seems to control our judgment. Martu came from the west. 





CHAPTER XXXII. 


THICK CYLINDERS WITH SHRINES AND ANIMALS. 


There is a class of Babylonian cylinders which stands so separate from Baby- 
lonian art that it is difficult to assign its place in a scheme of classification. They 
include the largest cylinders, 30 to 40 mm. in length and nearly as thick, although 
some are smaller, but of the same relative dimensions. ‘The large cylinders are 
usually made of a hard, white marble, and are engraved in a coarse way with figures 
of animals, ibexes, etc., and what can best be described as a shrine or doorway. 
Ménant, in his “Glyptique Orientale,” 1, p. 51, gives a drawing of a cylinder of 
this type and assigns to it the extremest antiquity; and in his description of the 
“Collection de Clercq” he puts cylinders of this type at the very front of his “Cata- 
logue,’ as representing the most archaic style. Heuzey follows Ménant, and in 
his magnificent “Découvertes en Chaldée par Ernest de Sarzec” (pp. 276, 277, 
plate xxx, fig. 1) he describes a fine cylinder of this type as “belonging to a very 
ancient epoch of Chaldean glyptic art”; and he offers this cylinder, here again 
confessedly following Ménant, as an example of the “very primitive use of the 
bouterolle,” or revolving burr, the terebra of the ancients. 

It is characteristic of all these cylinders that they are deeply worked in the 
joints and body of the animals or human figures with the bouterolle. ‘This fact 
would raise a question as to their very high antiquity, as we have no other examples 
of cylinders thus engraved before the times of the Kassite dynasty, when the use 
of these mechanical contrivances seems to have been introduced from Egypt by 
way of Syria and the Hittites. To be sure Heuzey (p. 276) refers to a bas-relief 
of the date of Ur-Nina (plate 1 drs, fig. 2) as showing the use of the bouterolle in 
very ancient times; but that is again a unique case in archaic bas-reliefs; and the 
round holes under the arms and under the chair can, I think, be otherwise explained 
than by the assumption that the bouterolle was in regular use. Certainly if used in 
marble it ought to have been used in hard stones; but no instance of the sort is 
known. Of course the vertical holes through the cylinders and other objects must 
have been made by a process of rolling, but not with the bouterolle as used later 
in seals. 

The material of these cylinders is peculiar; usually, in the case of the larger 
ones, of pure white marble, and in the case of the smaller ones, of a pink or red 
marble. The hard, crystalline, white marble was very little used in the archaic 
cylinders, and the pink marble not at all. We do have a number of pearly-white 
aragonite cylinders that go back to a very early period, but that is an allotropic 
form of calcium carbonate, differing from marble, and is readily distinguished from 
it. These are heavy, thick, coarse cylinders, all deeply bored with round holes 
and quite unlike any of the recognized forms of antique art. 

An excellent example of this type is found in the de Clercq collection (fig. 484). 
In this case, which is unusual, the shrine, or doorway, is double. We may conceive 
of it as two folding doors. ‘There are two ibexes over two bulls. They could hardly 


179 


180 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


be more roughly drawn; three deep holes are bored to fill out the body, several 
smaller ones for the legs, with an outline about the whole. The tails are quite 
omitted. We observe here the strong erect horns, which seem to designate neither 
the water-buffalo nor the bison of Elam, but a bull more of the form of the 
aurochs. Another cylinder with the double door, or shrine, appears in fig. 485. 
Here we have two ibexes over two hornless animals. It is remarkable that this 
white marble cylinder is unpierced; but it has the two ends indented, as if it were 
left uncompleted or too large to be strung and worn. Usually there is but a single 


(EE $ 
area, 


Z 


ELIZ 


Is 
Rif 
i 


Un 4 


SSS S| 
WZZZLLL ZA 
7 5 ‘ {| __—) = 





doorway or shrine. A good example is seen in fig. 486. Here, as elsewhere, the 
form of the grand entrance, or gateway, is clearly shown. The central door is in a 
somewhat deep recess apparently, as is very frequent now in the East, where the 
visitor is protected from rain by the depth of the wall; the sides and top we see 
usually ornamented with designs in plaster of Paris. In this case, as in others, 
the ornamentation is with diagonal lines. What the peculiar object is to the left of 
the gateway I can not conjecture. It does not appear to be an ornament on the 
wall, but looks like some implement. There are also several ibexes in various posi- 
tions, but the fracture does not allow us to say how many. In fig. 487 the shrine has 
with it two human figures, one of them, doubt- 
less a female, carries a vase on her shoulders. 

Other illustrations of these constructions, 
whether we call them shrines, doorways, gates, 
or porches, are seen in figs. 488, 489, 490, 491. 
They differ in that some have the door with bars, or in the arrangement of the 
diagonal lines, or in the animals being ibexes or bulls. 

In this connection must be considered another of the same general design, 
and still of white marble, like most of those already figured, shown in fig. 492. 
It has the same doorway, in a recess, and two ibexes. But the peculiar thing about 
it is that instead of being a simple cylinder, it has the upper end conical, or rather 
the frustum of a cone; so that it reminds one of the shape of certain cylinder seals 
of the Syro-Hittite or more northern style. Unlike those, however, this cylinder is 
pierced longitudinally, while those have the hole pierced through the narrow end. 


fl LASZAN 





THICK CYLINDERS WITH SHRINES AND ANIMALS. 181 


Yet the ornamentation on the upper end is in angles, such as we expect to find 
rather on early Assyrian cylinders, or those from northern outlying regions. 

These cylinders are architecturally interesting, and for this reason we may in- 
clude here another cylinder which, though not of the usual abnormal thickness, seems 
to have a relation tothem. Fig. 493 shows a similar portal and gate, with the angu- 
lar ornamentation above; also one standing figure. This is probably early Assyrian. 


o KK 


HZ WW 
: a) 












TL W\\ 


| LLLLLAL. 





ASS 


T{& 


ped, 








AQ 
A number of cylinders which evidently belong to this general type, usually 
somewhat smaller, have on them no shrine, only rude animals and men. In this 
class is one of serpentine (fig. 494) on which are a deer with branching horns and 
two sorts of ibexes, apparently, with other objects not easily definable. ‘The vertical 
lines might be the reminiscence of the shrine, or gate, or they may be meant for 








ashera-columns, in which latter case they would indicate a comparatively late date 
in the Assyrian period. To be compared with this is fig. 496. Here appears to be 
a narrow gate, and various rude fishes, etc., take the place of the usual animals. 
In fig. 495 we have only a scorpion and a simple branch. Yet another (fig. 497) 
has simply two horned animals, with deep dots; in fig. 498 we have three ibexes 
and a rude tree, and in fig. 499 three stags and a branch. In fig. 500 are what 
appear to be two long-tailed oryxes. In fig. 501 there are two —-—-———__~—— 
registers, with four animals in each, bulls, ibexes, and goats, 
one of which is perhaps feeding from what may bea manger. 

But those just figured are not of the smaller kind, 
which are so often of a red marble, but occasionally of ° 
other material. I obtained four of these in Southern Babylonia and was assured 
that two of them were said to have been found at Abu Shahrein. One of these, 
from this old site of Eridu the Blessed, is shown in fig. 502, of pink or red marble. 
It will be seen that there is a double border line at the bottom, with vertical cross- 
lines, and above it a series of what we may suppose to be six ibexes lying down— 
the animals consisting of little more than three large deep dots, with two horns. 
Another of the same material, which I was told also came from Abu Shahrein, 
appears in fig. 503. It gives us three seated figures and a series of Jarge and small 





182 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


dots. In fig. 502a the four seated figures have their hands lifted, as in other cases. 
The border line below is the same as we have seen in fig. 502. In fig. 504 we seem 
to have four figures seated before a fifth, and with them a number of vases. Fig. 
505 belongs to this same type, but is of serpentine, and in place of being pierced 








S val . 


498 
it has two holes at one end connected below so as to make a loop and hold a string. 
There are a seated figure and an ibex, and other objects not easily determined. 
No. 508 seems to carry two spiders; while fig. 507 gives two scorpions and three 
serpents. In fig. 506 we again have two seated figures, but also two standing figures. 

We now revert to the period to which these cylinders belong. 

There is"so little art, and that of the 
~( coarsest kind, about these cylinders that it 
— is not easy to draw evidence from it. The 
animals are of the most formal kind and 
they suggest a decaying rather than a nascent art. The abundant use of the boute- 
rolle, as previously stated, suggests a late period. The white marble does not abso- 
lutely exclude the earliest date, for we meet with a few large cylinders of white 
marble of an archaic period, and now and then one of unusual thickness, as in 
fig. 71, which is doubtless archaic, of white marble, and of a thickness (length 28 
mm., diameter width 22 mm.) nearly proportionate to that of the cylinders we are 
considering; but the marble seems to be of a different texture. 








SOL 
The shrines, or doorways, on these cylinders are not like those which we have 
found on other archaic cylinders. ‘Those are much more simple; these seem to 
suggest, perhaps, a door with a recess in the wall. The door itself is framed in two 
or three similar outlines, and they quite suggest the huts or shrines from Latium, 
seen in figs. 509, 510. Indeed, the hut shown in fig. 509 1s almost of the shape of 
the cylinder shown in fig. 486. 


THICK CYLINDERS WITH SHRINES AND ANIMALS. 183 


The smaller cylinders of pink marble may possibly not be related to the larger, 
white marble ones, although probably they are. I obtained four of them (one of 
syenite) in Southern Babylonia, and, as stated above, I was told that two of them 
were found in Abu Shahrein. This is evidence that they were in use in Southern, 
probably Southwestern, Babylonia or perhaps in the borders of Arabia. The 


J. Pierpont Morgan Library contains one which is cast in bronze or copper; 





JePrnevnhe Gaptabirl Mii ca bok wins eRe @ 





otherwise metal cylinders are quite late. Another evidence that these are late 
appears in another cylinder, a cast of which is mislaid, which seems to be of the 
same smaller style, with very deep holes and very thin outlines. In this case we 
seem to have the god Marduk with his : 
scimitar, but the weapon is of a shape 
characteristic of a late period, and not 
found in the earlier art. On all the ear- & 
lier cylinders the curved part of the scim- 
itar is very shallow, forming ANAL COL 
scarce 45 degrees; while in the later art the 
curve is much more pronounced, reaching 
a half circle, such as appears in this case. Hanes the profile face of the figure 
carrying the weapon has quite an archaic look, with its round head and angular, 
bird-like nose. While a conclusion can not be certainly reached I am inclined to 
put all these cylinders comparatively late. Unfortunately, on none of them is any 
inscription found. It would seem as if those who used them were not a literary 


people. 





CHAPTER XXXII. 


THE KASSITE CYLINDERS. 


With the introduction of the Kassite dynasty into Babylonia there came in a 
new type of cylinders quite different from those of the two previous periods. In 
the period about Sargon the Elder a large cylinder prevailed, from 3 to 4 cm. in 
length and two-thirds as thick. In the Middle Babylonian period, from the time 
of Gudea, the cylinders were much smaller, seldom reaching 3 cm. in length and 
with the thickness generally about half the length. In the Kassite period there 
was a reversion to the length of the earlier period, but not to its ratio of thickness. 
Thus they were generally 3 to 4 cm. in length, but only 1.5 to 2 cm. in thickness. 
It is true that there are smaller ones, but they are likely to occur in the more unusual 








512 

agates or jaspers. But these cylinders are particularly notable for their inscriptions, 
which may run to seven or eight lines and which are usually composed of prayers 
to the gods. The space for figures is thus limited, often only a single figure appear- 
ing, or two at the most, a god and a worshiper. But new emblems occur frequently, 
of which the most remarkable is a Greek cross. Few of these cylinders are of any 
special artistic merit, and we begin here to find the use of the wheel, or revolving 
disk, as an instrument of cutting. 

The date of these cylinders is fixed by several royal cylinders of Burnaburiash 
and Kurigalzu, belonging to the Kassite dynasty, three of which we have already seen 
in figures 40, 40a, 41a, and which are here repeated 
(figs. 512, 513, 539). Jo these may be added figs. 514, 
515, which are related to Kassite kings. They date 
from the period of the fourteenth or fifteenth century 
B.C. It is true that the Kassite dynasty began some 
three centuries earlier, but we have no evidence of this “= a EE 
peculiar style before the times of these five cylinders, and it was not till this time 
that we could presume the Egyptian influence to have begun to show itself. Pre- 
viously the Kassite art would hardly have differed from that general in Babylonia. 

We have in Oriental art abundant evidence of the profound influence of the 
Egyptian invasion of Asia, and to this must be attributed much that we have 
been accustomed to call Phenician. These cylinders belong to the usual and 
characteristic type, often a prayer to the god occupying so much space that there is 
room for but a single figure, which may be that of a god, but is usually that of a 
worshiper, whom we may consider to represent the owner of the seal in an attitude 

184 








THE KASSITE CYLINDERS. 185 


of supplication. Sometimes there is a single god represented, seated or standing, 
and occasionally both the god and his worshiper. We may also expect a new variety 
of symbols, the /abarum, or Greek cross, the sphinx, the winged disk, and various 
forms of birds and animals. Some of these seem to have come from an Egyptian 
influence, following the irruption of the eighteenth dynasty into Asia, and they 
are found more abundantly in the Syro-Hittite art. We have also in some, if not 
all, of these cylinders an evidently new facture, the use of the revolving terebra, and 
yet generally the inscriptions are as carefully cut with the point as in any of the 
earlier seals. While it would not be easy to find direct evidence for it, it sometimes 
seems as if as late as the Second Empire the style of this Kassite period was followed 
archaistically. 





As has been said, the most usual design shows only a single worshiper with 
the long inscription, as appears in figs. 512, 513, 514, 518. See figs. 40, 40a, 41a, for 
discussion of their relation to the times of the Kassite dynasty. Fig. 515 has the 
name of the son of Duriulmas, who was son of Kurigalzu. Here the cross, in the 
developed form of a cross within a cross, will be observed in fig. 514, and in fig. 515 
the vase (?) in the seated god’s hand, the bird, and the two rhombs, each inclosing 
a rhomb. Another admirable example is in the blue chalcedony (“saphirine’’) 


cylinder shown in fig. 516. In my “Hand-book No. 12” of the Seal Cylinders of 


Z| 
es) 


AS, 
S 


we 
A 


YT SIVA ie ; \ 
A ) Jj Er 6 mas, ye" 


YY 


ae 
oy pals 


al) A 


\—= 


Sm 
5S), 


\ Asi 
Ware ple 


iA mS | AY 


iG 
Ara ; 
g 


“Ee 
ASIc 
Ov 
ANS 


13 | 


—} 
SLPS 
Bs 
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516 517 

the Metropolitan Museum, I put this cylinder very much later, owing to the material 
which we scarcely find in use before the period of the Persian Empire, but even 
with the sphinxes facing each other the workmanship may well belong to the later 
Kassite period. The sphinxes are, to be sure, not found on other seals of this style, 
but they are common enough on the Syro-Hittite seals of as early a period. It is 
much to be desired that we knew the topographic source of the blue chalcedony 
so much admired later. This cylinder was brought by General di Cesnola from 
Cyprus, but it probably did not have its origin there. We observe in this, as in 
the preceding cylinders, the straight, stiff garment of the worshiper, a style which 
is quite characteristic. 





186 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


The inscription in eight lines reads: 


To the god Marduk, mighty lord, light of the multitudes, 
Judge of the countries, who executes justice in heaven and earth, 
Giver of life to the gods, his own offspring 
Make glorious the servant who fears thee. 
May he be illustrious! may his name be magnified! may he be wise! 
Tunamige 
Son of Pari, 
A man called [to his position] by the people, may he increase !—Price. 


We may include in this class fig. 517. Besides the single god there are what 
may be a sheep and a bull lying down, three heads of durra, and six objects which 
may, represent the rhombs, more frequent later. 
The inscription is of interest for the names of the 
gods worshiped. It is thus read by Professor Price 
(American Journal of Semitic Languages and Lit- 
erature, Xx, Dp. 1h4)s 

“Property of Marduk-Ummiagarra, son of 
Apil-Marduk, who is servant of the god Lugal- 
banda and the goddess Nin-gul.” The arrange- 
ment of the lines in two columns is peculiar. 

Of those cylinders which have but a single figure, and that a worshiper, it is 
sufficient to give but three others. They are important simply for their long inscrip- 
tions. One is shown in fig. 518 of an unusual material, a black chalcedony. 

Another example is fig. 520, and the inscription is thus translated by Oppert: 

O Wife of Ea, loved of the earth 
SOVEreIgn Of, intel 

Who pardonest 

the handmaid, thy worshiper, 
Dusurtu, 


daughter of Ibni-Bau, 
granddaughter of Ibni-... 




















It is of interest that this is one of the seals we occasionally meet which belonged 
to a woman; and, further, that although she is a worshiper of the goddess Damkina, 
it is the conventional bearded figure which is engraved on the cylinder, neither 
that of herself as worshiper nor of her goddess. ‘This illustrates how independent 
the design often is of the inscription. 


aX 


ee 


=I Sit r| 
V// 


fas} 
wy 


< 





iw 
§22 





520 521 

We have treated this standing figure with hand raised as that of a worshiper. 

Of course, it is to be considered whether it may represent an undifferentiated god 
whose raised hand represents not worship, but placated pardon or benediction. 
While a worshiper is represented with hand raised before his god, the god worshiped 
also often raises his hand in the same way, although usually he holds a cup or some 


THE KASSITE CYLINDERS. 187 


object in his hand. But that this figure may represent a god is certainly suggested 
by fig. 521, where the standing figure wears a tiara like that of a god, and a dog 
stands before him. Similarly a dog stands before the supposed worshiper in fig. 
425. Here) besides. the doe, there is an ibex, and 
there is a profusion of ornamental emblems, a cross, 
rosettes, and rhombs, and an uncertain object, the 
lower part of which looks like a fish. The rhombs 
we shall frequently see in these and in the Assyrian 
and Syro-Hittite cylinders. They are what Lenor- 
mant calls the xveis, although it is far from certain 
that in the ancient art it had the significance of 
a female emblem. It is as likely to be the Egyptian 
eye. In fig. 524 the dog stands before a figure who is certainly a god, although 
he has the hand raised, but in benediction. Before him kneels a worshiper. 


Ws 
zsh 
}3s 
BS (issxt 
SN 


mx 
\y-3 


Net 






































SS 
< 

i 

OE SS 
= 





527 
most frequent, perhaps, is 
the god holding in his hand a scimitar curved at the bottom, whom we have found 
to be Marduk. From the time of Hammurabi Marduk shared popular veneration 
with Shamash, and his representation was to be expected on the cylinders. An 
example is seen in fig. 523. ‘There is little doubt that the god figured is Marduk, 
and yet the two deities worshiped are Nergal and Shamash: “May Nergal hearken 
to his name; may Shamash lift him up.”’ Another cylinder (fig. 522) of the unusual 
material bloodstone has the same design as fig. 523. ‘The inscription reads: 

O Goddess Belit, the exalted, 

Guard (him), preserve (him), 

Spare (him for a long life) ; 

The servant who fears thee, 

Zabru, 

Son of Indim.—Price. 


188 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


This is one of three cylinders here given in which Belit is addresed. ‘The others 
are figs. 531, 535. Another of a somewhat variant type appears in fig. 526, where 
the god holds the scimitar of Marduk, but lifts his foot like Shamash, yet not like 
Shamash to put it on a conventional mountain, but on a bird which probably takes 
the place of Tiamat. We shall see in figs. 587-596 the god fighting an ostrich, and 
in figs. 597-9 fighting several eagle-like birds beaked as in the present case. With 
the bird are here other emblems, the ibex, the cross, and two rhombs. The inscrip- 


tion reads: To the God Mardu. lordtot 


the mighty, ruler of heaven and earth, 

to his sovereignty it (this seal) is dedicated 
by the servant who fears thee; 

may thine eyes be favorable (to me).—Price, 


Another case is seen in fig. 527 of the god with the scimitar, where the god wor- 


shiped is Nergal. 











Sometimes the god with the scimitar appears with the worshiper standing in 
adoration before him, as in fig. 528, which contains only a filiary inscription, with 
the name of the god worshiped. It reads: “Udam ... . , son of Siga-Marduk, 
servant of Adad and Belit the exalted.’’—Price. 

In fig. 529 the god with the scimitar is repeated on the lower register, and the 
worshiper is similarly repeated on the upper register, and a flying bird appears 


with each couple of figures. In fig. 530 Marduk 











stands between a worshiper and his goddess, Liar 
‘a + . ze . . Ale acs 

here figured like Aa or Shala. ‘The inscription ARG 
by, 

reads: 6 













{ 


LY 
— 4) 


SF 
‘ — 


0 Or 0 Je A 
ay) Ge = \\ (QS 
To the god Marduk, the brilliant lord, ay, LY oa 
The first-born god, the first-born lord, A 2 | 
Who preserves in safety the souls of the living, 


« 


eK [er 
mH yi 
y's 


WSK 





—<— 


A 
g 












— 
Pa EUROS Retail Te Co SES eR Ge ie8 egy lc — Price | | 
. . . . . \ 
Similar is fig. 531 where the god with the scim- 4s XN Jss\\ 


itar stands between two worshipers, and above 


EL 











d 
y 


ran 
them are two flying birds and a star, while three rhombs appear in the field. This 


is one of the cases in which the inscription bears no reference to the god; the prayer 
is addressed to Belit, “Lady of Heaven.” It reads: 


O goddess Belit, 

Thou hast made (him), thou hast called (him); 
Guard (him), protect (him), 

And spare (him for a long life): 

The Servant who fears thee.—-Price. 


THE KASSITE CYLINDERS. 189 


The flying bird appears as the important element in other seals of this general 
Kassite class. Such are fig. 532, an unusual green feldspar (Amazon stone) cylinder, 
and fig. 533. In fig. 534 two gods are represented, each of them with a scimitar but 
one of them has his leg protruded and the knee bent, as in the figure of Shamash, 
although the low conventional mountain, which is his footstool, is not drawn. The 
inscription would seem in this case to indicate the two gods, and is thus translated 


by Oppert: 


God... Master of the gods 

Thou God... of the gods of life, 
Who makest the sun helpful 
Proclaim his glory. 









SE Ni 


ON 





Lf 





= 





a) 


The “Master of the gods”? would be Marduk, and the second deity is indicated as 
Shamash. 


Occasionally these cylinders give us the figure of a seated god. We have such 
a case In fig. 535. Here a column, that of Marduk, stands before the god and may 
suggest again that he is the god represented. Above it is what may be a suggestion 
of the winged disk, although we should hardly ; 
expect the disk at this period, and above are 
three crosses. ‘The inscription reads: 





O goddess Belit, the exalted, 

Thou hast made, thou hast named him, 

Grant (him) favor, 

Guard (him), protect (him) 

And spare him (for a long life) : 

Thy Servant who deeply reverences thee.—Price. 





Another cylinder which has some peculiar features is shown in fig. 536. Here the 
seated god holds in his hand a stalk of durra, the Egyptian wheat, to be presented 
as the bread of life to the worshiper; and opposite him stands a goddess, like Aa, 
and in this case the breasts are distinct, which is not to be expected at an earlier 
period. In the frieze above are two bulls lying down, one each side of what may 
possibly be a so-called sacred tree. It is an emblem not easily identified. The 
bulls appear to be of the humped variety, which we do not see before this period. 
We might naturally expect the seated god to be Shamash, and here the presence of 
Aa favors the identification, although the grain in his hand is not specially his. 
The inscription is interesting. It reads: 

Menaruptum, 

Daughter of Bazi. 

Lady of Nabu-dayan, 


Handmaid of (god) Shamash, 
Lady of (god) Adad.—Parice. 


190 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


In fig. 537 before the seated god are the cross and the rhomb. ‘The inscription 
is addressed to Shamash. We have already seen a similar case in fig. 515 where 
the seated god is accompanied by a bird and two rhombs. In fig. §37a the seated 
god’s feet and seat rest on two human-headed bulls, such as we see in figs. 320-323. 
Before him is simply a beardless worshiper, and there are seven lines of inscription, 
and an eighth between the god and his worshiper. The god might appear to be 
Shamash. The inscription reads: 

Manbargini- Marduk, 
the diviner, 

Son of Iriba-Marduk, 
family of Isin, 

born 


at Babylon, 
chief servant of the god Marduk and the goddess Gula.—Price. 





) 





sO 


SECON Lr 








536 


There are a few other cylinders of the Kassite class that may be mentioned 
for some special peculiarity. One is fig. 538. Besides Marduk and his scimitar 
we have a small figure of the naked goddess whom we have measurably identified 
with Zirbanit, wife of Marduk, properly figured with him here. The inscription 
is filiary and bears the name of Sin. There is also the cross. An unusual cylinder 
is shown in fig. 539, a hitherto unrecognized royal cylinder of Kurigalzu. The 
inscription reads: ~ "Terimangar 

son of Gishkuranshidada 


chief official of the shrine of Ishtar, 
servant of Kurigalzu.—Price. 


There are two bearded human figures, each apparently holding a musical 
instrument. These musical instruments are of interest, and one of them is perhaps 
unique in ancient art. It is the long object held by the left-hand figure. It 1s what 
is called in Arabic the naz, also kemen; it is used by the Eastern dervishes and is 
figured on Egyptian monuments (see Prince, “Music,” fig. 23, “Encyclopedia 
Biblica” ). It is now made by making a drum of a gourd or cocoa-nut, and attaching 
to it a long rod and adding from one to three strings, thus forming a very rude lute. 
The other instrument is a cithern. ‘There are several small objects, a fly, a monkey, 
a cross, an ibex, and four rhombs. Sometimes the inscription leaves no room for 
the figure of a god or a worshiper. Such a case we see in fig. 540 where the space 
of a single line is given to two crosses and a rhomb. ‘The difficult inscription would 
appear to refer to Shamash. 

The nature of the long inscription will probably warrant us in putting here 
the fine, though somewhat worn, cylinder of jade shown in fig. 541. ‘This cylinder 
is in two registers, each of which has nine lines of inscription, consisting of a 


THE KASSITE CYLINDERS. 191 


Sumerian prayer. In the upper register is the figure of Aa, and before her six 
small oval objects over two slender branches or trees. In the lower register is a 
tree which suggests the later tree of life, though less regular and ornate, each branch 
ending in a sort of fruit or blossom; and above, on each side is a very graceful bird. 
The designs in both registers are quite unlike the old Babylonian or the Assyrian, 
nor is it to be matched among the other Kassite cylinders; not only the inscription, 
but the unusual size of the cylinder and its general cutting would suggest Kassite 
as its period, although the apparent tree of life makes this very doubtful. 

The introduction of this style of Kassite cylinders marks the transition from the 
older to the newer Assyrian and Babylonian fashion in this branch of glyptic art. 
It was a reversion from the small cylinders that had been in use from the time of 
Gudea to the more generous size that had preceded them. At the same time new 
motives came into use, and new emblems, with longer inscriptions, whose precatory 














CMY, 


Bao ey) 


a Bh) 




















WS27 GS 4) yy) 
Vat i 
oh (ea MH Au 7 
x 2) | 7m tp V 
eT UM 


942 

character suggests that they had begun to have something of the nature of an amulet. 
It is at this period also that we begin to observe the general use of a new method of 
engraving, by means of revolving drills and disks, but not yet of tubular drills. The 
emblems offer the chief difficulty. Once we have seemed to see a rude form of the 
winged disk, which had been brought from Egypt. The cross is nothing more than 
a variation of the old conventional representation of the sun, which was made of 
four radiating angles with which alternated streams. Here the streams and the 
circumference were omitted, and there remained a, cross which was decoratively 
modified. ‘That the cross came from the sun-disk is made almost certain from 
fig. 543. This is a Syro-Hittite cylinder on which we see the representation of the 
sun inclosed in the moon’s crescent; but instead of the earlier form of the included 
rays and streams we have a cross of two lines in an enveloping cross such as we 
have on these Kassite seals. The dots on the extremities of the included cross are 
perfectly paralleled by the similar dots at the ten extremities of the star of Ishtar 
as shown, with the cross, in fig. 542, where the gods mentioned in the inscription 


192 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


are Ramman and the Great Goddess. Whether the swastika was derived from this 
cross we can not say; but in the simple forms of the Kassite cross in which the envel- 
oping cross is omitted, it is much like the swastika.* ‘That the rhomb represents the 
xveis, or female emblem, is hardly probable. It is quite as likely to have replaced 
the crescent of the moon, especially as the crescent is no more represented on 
these seals than the sun in its old form. Equally likely, as already suggested, is it 
that it comes from the eye, so often figured in Egyptian art. ‘These are the two 
principal emblems, and may have been the sun and moon. It is possible that 
when in its western passage the emblem reached the region where the moon was 
regarded as a female divinity, the emblem itself became feminine, but the extreme 
modesty of both Babylonian and Persian art (the Kassite dynasty being from Elam) 
hardly allows us to think that the rhomb had originally a sexual meaning. 





543 


Of the remaining emblems, such as the bird with wings closed or flying, and 
the dog, it is not easy to discover any definite meaning. We shall, however, find 
the dog of Bau-Gula on the kudurrus, and shall have to consider it in the study of 
the emblems of the gods. One naturally thinks of the large réle played by the dog 
in the later Persian religion, for which see “Sacred Books of the East, Zend-Avesta,” 
p. Lxxtv. The dog was the protector against the death-spirit. The dog appears 
freely on the later cylinders of the Second Babylonian Empire; and the transition 
from the style of the Kassite period to the Neo-Babylonian may have been gradual, 
and some of those we have here considered may belong to the time of Nebuchad- 
nezzar II., or not much earlier. he separation is not always easy. For another 
cylinder apparently of this class see fig. 545. 








* Since this chapter was written I find that de Morgan, ‘‘ Délégation en Perse,” vol. vi, p. 110, suggests the same 
origin of the swastika, which he found on pottery associated with the cross. 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 


THE LATER BABYLONIAN PERIOD. 


For a complete study of the date of these cylinders we are indebted to J. Ménant, 
whose discussion of the impressions of these seals on tablets of the Egibi family 
was published first in a paper “Empreintes de Cylindres assyro-chaldéens,” 1880, 
and later in his “Les Pierres Gravées,”’ 11, pp. 129 seq. We can do no better than 
to follow, for the most part, his discussion, showing that this class of cylinders was 
in use from the time of Nebuchadnezzar II. to that of the Seleucidz. 

The cylinder shown in fig. 544 is impressed, in part, on a tablet dated in the 
second year of Nebuchadnezzar. As we find it thus, in a very characteristic form 
as early as the first year of the first king of the dynasty, we may conclude that there 
was an insensible transition from the times of the Kassite kings. The cylinders 
have the same size and shape, but quite a new set of symbolic forms has arisen and 
the use of the long precatory inscriptions has gone out of fashion. 






~ B45 eee 

And yet long inscriptions are occasionally seen which may suggest that it is 
possible that some of the supposed Kassite cylinders may belong to a later period. 
Another impression from a tablet dated in the twenty-sixth year of Nebuchadnezzar 
is seen in fig. 545. We have here the worshiper, precisely as we have seen him in 
the seals of the Kassite date, standing in adoration before what is not an altar, as 
has been supposed, but the seat of the gods, and on it two emblems, one the thunder- 
bolt of Adad and the other a dog. Ménant gives a second example, in his fig. 
122, of almost the same design, only the thunderbolt stands before the divine seat 
and there is a crescent. 





547 : , 
We can not do better than to reproduce from Ménant several other impressions 


of cylinders on tablets. That in fig. 546 1s dated in the thirteenth year of Nabonidus; 

that of fig. 547 in the reign of Cambyses; fig. 548 is on a tablet dated in the twelfth 

year of Darius. We see here a new series of motifs on the cylinders and yet not 

wholly new, for they are all found in the kudurrus. The irregular oval object rest- 

ing on the divine seats, and surmounted by a star or a crescent, is not easy to explain, 
13 193 


194 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


but it is not itself important except as the support for the star of Ishtar and the 
crescent of Sin. It may represent, in a corrupted form, the horned turban of the god 
as seen, two or three together, on kudurrus. Those turbans are not distinguished 
by emblems, but they usually represent Anu, Inlil, and Ea. (See figs. 1269, 1271, 
1272.) Here they may be conventionalized, and are then distinguished by their 
emblems, the star or the crescent. The goat-fish, with the raven’s head on an ashera 
above it, in fig. 548, represents Ea. The ashera with a lion’s head in figs. 546, 547 


is meant for Zamama-Ninib. 





These figures have been taken from impressions of cylinders on dated tablets; 
but there are many cylinders whose period may be easily gathered from these by 
comparison, and they give some other symbols. One of the same style is seen in 
fig. 549 which gives us simply the three divine seats on which are the emblems of 
three gods, one evidently Sin, but the others not so clear. The center one looks 
like horns, but may be a form of the thunderbolt of Adad. The deity represented 
by the dog seems to be Bau-Gula. Another ts fig. 550, in which a worshiper stands 
before two divine seats, on one of which is the emblem of Sin and on the other 
that of Ishtar. In 550a we have the emblems of Sin and Adad and a worshiper. 
In fig. 551 the emblems of Sin and Ishtar are both over the divine seat, before which 
the worshiper stands. Behind him is a tree, at the foot of which is a dog, or 





B62 558 55d 
jackal, and a rampant sphinx stands before three lines of inscription. In fig. 552 
the worshiper stands before a crescent and a dog. This is a very handsome lapis- 
lazuli cylinder. 

An interesting design appears in fig. 553. Here the owner of the cylinder is 
repeated in the attitude of worship before Sin (standing on his crescent) and the, 
emblem of Marduk. We shall find this figure of Sin in the crescent repeated in 
another style in the Persian cylinders. Yet another emblem, that of a gallinaceous 
bird, is shown in fig. 554. Here the worshiper with a vase and a pail stands before 
a table with ox’s feet. The object on one of the divine seats is elongated, and on it 
is the crescent of Sin; on the other is the bird. Of what deity it is the emblem is 
not yet determined. In fig. 555 we have a similar figure of a worshiper before a 


symbol of the god Sin, and the inscription giving the name of the god. In fig. 556 


THE LATER BABYLONIAN PERIOD. 195 


we have a cylinder much like that in fig. 554 where the worshiper stands before the 
emblem of Sin and a bird. 

We have seen the goat-fish already on the impressions of cylinders or tablets. 
An unusually fine cylinder with this design is shown in fig. 557. The cylinder is 
remarkable for its unique material, a rich blue quartz, nof lapis-lazuli, as given by 
Ménant. Here the worshiper stands before the divine seat, on which is the goat- 
fish emblem of Ea, with the column of the 
goat’s head above it, and above them the 
crescent. Then we have, as a fresh emblem, 
two human-headed scorpions facing each 
other. These scorpions seem to be men- 
tioned in the Gilgamesh epic. Another cyl- 
inder with a similar design is shown in fig. 
1278. Here the worshiper stands before the man-scorpion in an attitude of worship. 
The scorpion represents Ishkhara. There is also the goat-fish of Ea, and above it 
we see the supreme Ashur, somewhat in the Persian shape, with the circle lost from 
the winged disk. ‘This may be a somewhat later cylinder of the Persian period. 

At times these cylinders carried nothing but emblems of gods, with the wor- 
shiper before them. Such a case appears in fig. 558. Here we have the emblems of 
Marduk with his fantastic animal before it, and that of Nebo to the right. The 
divine seat is quite reduced. 





556 











558 


557 


The various emblems are the peculiar characteristic of the cylinders of this 
period which begins from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, or his father, and extends 
into the period of the Persian kings, when the cylinder was passing into the cone 
seals, which were generally engraved simply with columns or asheras, symbolizing 
the gods, more frequently Marduk and Nebo, as in fig. 558. Its simpler forms may 
not easily be distinguished from those of the Kassite style, which, indeed, doubtless 
merged into that of the last Babylonian empire. The symbols themselves will have 
to be treated more at length in a separate chapter. 


CHAPTER XXXV. 


MISCELLANEOUS BABYLONIAN CYLINDERS. 


A certain number of cylinders of the Older Empire, but not absolutely archaic, 
defy classification. Such a one is fig. 559. It shows usa hunter with a bow shooting 
at a wild bull on a mountain. Behind him is a nude attendant holding a short sword 
or knife, below which is a /second knife. Between the two is a short inscription 
~) in an archaic style, on which we can read the charac- 
ter Lugal, king. ‘The entire design is vigorous and 
| seems to belong to the period of Sargon the Elder, 
| and so does not belong with the hunting designs of a 
much later period shown in Chapter Lixt 

With this may be eeameiel another of similar vigor, seen in fig. 560. Here a 
lion seizes a bull from behind, and the bull kicks at the lion. A single gracefully 
bending reed indicates the nature of the ground, here not a mountainous region. 
This also appears to be of a comparatively early period. 








ee a. 1 an a 
Similarly old, probably, judging from the inscription and the garments worn 


by two figures, is the cylinder shown in fig. 561. ‘This design is absolutely unique 
and comes nearer to being obscene than any other known. A female figure, per- 
fectly nude, sits squat, with knees apart, over a prostrate figure, nude except for a 
belt, and lying on his back with his hands 
behind his head, apparently dying or dead. A 
standing figure in a short simple garment grasps 
the arm of the female figure and with the other 
hand seems to raise a weapon. ‘The attitude 
of the female figure certainly suggests the 
whoredoms as described in Ezekiel 16: 25. 

Another peculiar and quite unique cylin- 
der we have in fig. 562. Here is a god seated on a monster which has quite the form 
of that which we see under the seat of Marduk on the kudurrus and on the cylinders. 
Before them is an altar with flame. There approach two figures, of which the first 
bears a branch and leads the second who carries a goat as an offering. There are 
six short lines of inscription. This is a quite archaic cylinder, much earlier than 
the emergence of Marduk. It may be that the god is Bel and that his animal, who 
may be an early alternative form of the dragon ‘Tiamat, was later assumed by the 
Marduk of Babylon. 

196 





CHAPTER XXXVI. 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: BEL AND THE DRAGON. 


The conflict between Bel and the dragon is not found on the older Babylonian 
monuments. It first appears in the Assyrian period. In the earliest Chaldean art 
we have the dragon driven by a god in his chariot, or with the god standing on his 
back, but not the representation of the conflict itself. It is possible that the story 
of the conflict which led to the subjugation of the dragon had not yet been developed 
and that accordingly the mastery of the god of light and order over the representa- 
tives of darkness and disorder had not yet been figured in art. We have no 
representation of the sort from the earlier Babylonian period, unless we are to 
find it in fig. 563, which bears the name of Dungi, King of Ur, and is taken from 
an impression on a tablet. See fig. 51, also figs. 187a and b. Here, however, it is a 
figure like Gilgamesh, duplicated for symmetry, which is in conflict with a dragon. 











EKA 
WAYS” 


L\ 
43 
















565 


The texts we now have of the fight between Bel Marduk and Tiamat are quite late, 
even in the Assyrian history, belonging to the time of Assurbanipal of the seventh 
century; but the essence of the story must have been considerably earlier, although 
originating in Babylonia. Indeed, it is distinctly two centuries earlier in Assyrian 
art, inasmuch as the remarkable representation of the fight between Bel and the 
dragon on two slabs (fig. 564), in the British Museum, comes from the temple of 
Ninib built by Assurnazirpal in Nimrid, where was an earlier capital of Assyria. 
This standard representation, more or less varied, was often repeated on Assyrian 
seals and in later times was very much modified, as we shall see. 

The fight between Bel and the dragon is an early cosmogonic story of the con- 
flict between order and disorder; of the creation of the world out of monstrous 
chaos. Originally, if one can judge from indications gathered by L. W. King in 
his “Seven Tablets of Creation,” it was another god of an older time, either Ea or 

197 


198 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


the Elder Bel-Inlil, who overcame the ocean monsters; but as Babylon came to be 
the chief capital of the country, the local god of Babylon, Marduk, was made the 
chief Bel Marduk of the pantheon and assumed the conquests of the local gods who 
had ruled at Eridu and Nippur. From this time Marduk was Bel; and it was he 
who overcame Tiamat, and it was he who had the fifty names of conquest and glory. 
Doubtless the story of the fight between Bel and the dragon originated at a very early 
period, even althqugh the actual conflict is not distinctly given in early Baby- 
lonian art. To be sure, we have such figures of a winged composite monster from a 
period of extreme antiquity, indeed the same as was put on the great bas-relief of 
Assurnazirpal; it is not represented in the act of conflict, but as thoroughly subdued 
and therefore not killed. We have already seen it in Chapter vii on the Dragon, 
where it is drawing the god’s chariot, or where a deity is standing on its back. We 
have also seen the same dragon in conflict with a human figure on seals of a some- 
what less antiquity in Chapter xxix, but in these cases it seems to be less the victory 
of Bel over the dragon than it is the victory of the dragon over a human antagonist. 
The story as told in the “Seven Tablets of Creation” represents Marduk as 

slaying the dragon Tiamat and dividing her body to create the firmament and the 
earth out of the two portions. This is very likely a late development of the story; 
for, as has been said, in the earliest art the dragon is not slain, but simply subdued. 
Equally there have been other radical variations in different localities. A quite differ- 
ent version was in the mind of the artist of Assurnazirpal, inasmuch as his dragon 1 1s 
masculine, and not, like Tiamat, feminine. Equally thus in the version given by 
King (“Seven Tablets of Creation,” p. 117) the dragon is masculine. ‘The text reads: 

Who was the serpent (dragon) . 

Tamtu was the Serpent ..... 

Bel in heaven hath formed ..... 

Fifty kaspu is his length, one kaspu (his height) 

Six cubits is his mouth, twelve cubits (his... .) 

Twelve cubits is the circuit of (his ears) 

For the space of sixty cubits he ..... a bird, 

In water nine cubits he draggeth . . 

He raiseth his tail on high .. . 
The tablet, unfortunately broken, goes on to tell how the gods appealed to Sin to 
attack the dragon, now called not szru, serpent, but /abbu, lion, as if both the serpent 
form and the lion-headed form were familiar to the writer. The dimensions given, 
however, make it a serpent rather than the composite monster with wings which we 
find more frequently on the seals. The length is given as fifty kaspu, that is, about 
three hundred miles, while the breadth of his mouth is only six cubits. He is to be 
conceived of as a serpent, most probably of such a form as is to be seen in the 
rare cylinders of the most archaic period shown in figs. 106-108, where he takes the 
serpent form with a human head and is bent in the shape of a boat on which a god 
rides, perhaps Ea or Enlil, the Elder Bel; or of the serpent form of the myth to be 
given later (figs. 578, 579). It is to be observed that in this version of the myth the 
verbs and pronouns referring to the dragon are masculine, and that the name given 
to him is not Tiamat, but its masculine T'amtu. The serpent form of the dragon, 
whether masculine or feminine, has thus far been found in conflict with Marduk 
only on two cylinders. ‘The last line quoted above, “ He raiseth his tail on high,” 
suggests the dragon of Marduk, fig. 1300. 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: BEL AND THE DRAGON. 199 


The usual dragon is a quadruped, with the head and fore legs of a lion, the hind 
legs of an eagle, a short tail of a bird, and a body covered with feathers. In the bas- 
relief from Nimrdid, the phallus has the head of a snake. As figured in the bas- 
relief the god has four wings and carries a thunderbolt in each hand; and his 
peculiar weapon, the sickle-shaped scimitar, hangs by his side, as does also a 
third slender weapon. On the cylinders the god may shoot his three-pronged 
arrow of lightning from a bow. He is usually accompanied by a smaller figure, 
much like Tiamat, which is probably to be regarded as one of the evil spirits 
which he called to his aid; for this form is not peculiar to Tiamat, but may be 
given to any demon of storm or pestilence. 

WY} 


wv 
yy 





Perhaps the best example of these cylinders is shown in fig. 565. It is also 
probably one of the oldest, as it is one of the largest of the class. Here the weapons 
of the god are the bow, a quiver, and an ax. He is accompanied by a monster 
which differs from ‘Tiamat not only in size but also by having a tail like a dog, or, 
more likely, a scorpion. In the field are a sacred tree, a winged disk (which may 
here be Shamash and not Ashur), the crescent of Sin, the star of Ishtar, a fish, and 
two ovals which are usually regarded as female emblems, but which are quite as 
likely to be the Egyptian eye. 

For some years the only known example of this design was that figured by 
George Smith in his “Chaldean Account of Genesis” (revised ed., p. 114). This 
cylinder is now in the Metropolitan Museum and is shown in fig. 566. It appears 
to be later than the former. The god has from his shoulders the double ray, or 
quiver, often seen in the later Assyrian figures of gods. ‘Iwo worshipers are figured, 
one kneeling; also the oval or rhomb, the winged disk, and the seven dots, which 
seem to represent the Igigi or perhaps, as Hommel says, the god of the planet Saturn. 





Another excellent example of this design appears in fig. 567. Here we have 
two scenes, one the fight of Marduk with the dragon, the other a worshiper before 
his goddess Ishtar. Marduk shoots with a bow and carries his scimitar in his 
belt. Here the dragon seems to stand on a mountain, which 1s a startling variation 
from the myth as we have it, inasmuch as Tiamat is a creature of the ocean rather 
than of the land. Another example is shown in fig. 568. Here a second deity follows 
the god and carries his thunderbolt for him. In fig. 569 the god also seems to have an 


e 


200 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA, 


associate in the battle. In fig. 570, again, we see the god with his favorite trident 
arrow and the two rays from his shoulders. We have a peculiar scene in fig. 571 
where the frequent confusion appears by which the god Marduk is replaced by the 
usual type of Gilgamesh, who attacks the dragon with a spear. There is a rampant 
ibex, also a bird, and a monkey on the top of a tree. In fig. 572 the god seizes the 
dragon by the leg. It is not quite easy to explain the calf lying down so quietly before 
the god and showing no excitement over the conflict, unless it be by its raised tail. 





: Sl Gai 

Among other illustrations of this design may be shown fig. 573 and fig. 575. 
It is well here to consider fig. 574, on a very much worn and large cylinder of hema- 
tite, but of a style usual on soft serpentine, which seems to indicate that it belongs 
to a class of early Assyrian or neighboring cylinders which I have been inclined 
to regard as being earlier than 1000 B. C. It has the wide herring-bone border. 
The god is on one knee and shoots at the dragon with a bow. ‘The dragon’s tail 
is more that of a scorpion. ‘The condition of the cylinder is such that it is not pos- 
sible to make out the full details. ‘The seal is interesting as an indication of the 
early appearance of this design in Assyrian art, but with a winged, bird-headed god. 





LSS Se 


574 

A peculiar and very interesting cylinder is given in fig. 576. Here we find that 
the deity, usually figured as Marduk, is replaced by a composite figure with the 
lower body of a scorpion. On one of the kudurrus (fig. 1287, W.A.I., V, 57) isa 
scorpion-man shooting with a bow. He has been supposed to represent the Sagit- 
tarius of the sign of the Zodiac. This appears to show us what was the foe at which 
his arrow was directed. Unfortunately, it is not certain who was the god that takes 
the form of the scorpion-man. It is, of course, not the same as the simple scorpion, 
which represents the goddess Iskhara. And the scorpion Sagittarius can not be 
Marduk, since his emblem appears on the kudurrus. But just as Marduk, in his 
victory over Tiamat, supplanted earlier gods whose réle this was, so in later times, 
or in other regions, when the hegemony of Babylon had come to an end, the conquest 
may have been ascribed to other local deities. Another illustration of the confusion 





ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: BEL AND THE DRAGON. 201 


which attached to this design in a later period is seen in fig. 577. Here two gods, 
or, rather, the same one duplicated for symmetry, unite in lifting a dragon by the 
hind legs, much in the attitude of Gilgamesh. It will be observed that the deity 
has the short garment with horizontal stripes, of a Hittite god, while a worshiper 
stands before Ishtar, after the Assyrian style. 

In two cases we have the composite dragon replaced by the serpent. It has 
been mentioned that in one version of the story the description and dimensions 
show that the figure of the serpent was in mind. One of these is known as the 
“Williams Cylinder,” first described by me in the “ Bibliotheca Sacra,” 1881, p. 224, 
in an article on “The Serpent Tempter in Oriental Theology,” and from there it 
was copied by Professor Sayce in his revised edition of Smith’s “The Chaldean 
Account of Genesis,” p. go. This cylinder was obtained by the Rev. W. Frederick 
Williams, an American missionary in the region of Mosul. He bought it from an 
Arab, who had just come over the river from Layard’s diggings near Mosul in 1857. 











Mr. Williams presented it to his brother on learning soon after that a son had been 
named after him; and it passed from the hands of this son, Prof. Frederick Wells 
Williams of Yale University, into my possession and that of the Metropolitan 
Museum. It is shown in fig. 578. The god thrusts at the serpent’s mouth with a 
lance or similar weapon. The serpent is very long and has a peculiar horned head. 
There is one worshiper and probably an attendant deity. In the field are also the 
crescent, the rhomb, the seven dots (one missing), and two small trees. 

Since the discovery of this unusual cylinder, the British Museum has secured 
another of remarkable interest, first published by C. W. King (fig. 579). The 
serpent is not only horned, but he has two short arms and two hands. The god 1s 
armed with thunderbolts in each hand and is followed by a companion deity with a 
club. A worshiper stands before the serpent and god. In the field are a star, the 
sun in a crescent, and a rhomb. : 

These two seals are of great importance for the fresh version they give of the 
myth. They show us that in the region where these cylinders were made a form of 


202 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


the story was current in which Tiamat, whether female or whether the masculine 
Tamtu, assumed the form of the serpent. ‘That is, it took the form which was incor- 
porated into the Genesis story of the temptation of man; for the biblical story of 
the temptation, although adapted to a pure monotheism, must have been a part 
of a cycle of which the Tiamat story is another episode. We may conjecture that 
these are not purely Assyrian cylinders, but that they originated in some region to 
the north or west of Assyria, whether that of the Mitani or the Hittites, and that 
it was directly from them that the Israelites got the story of the serpent tempter, 
and not directly from the Babylonians or Assyrians. 


MMM LL fff [MMMM 
WA AN{(\, AY Ly 






There are many other variants of this scene of conflict in which the artists 
delighted, especially in the later Assyrian period, while they seem sometimes to 
have almost lost the original story. In fig. 580 the head of the monster is still that 
of a lion, but the attitude is more nearly that of a horse. Besides the star, the fish, 
and the rhomb, we observe also a bird, such as we shall later see the god fighting 















oe 
(PEER 


MU MOM Nia 













with. But more frequently the monster took the head as well as the wings and hind 
legs of an eagle. Thus in fig. 581 we find that the god, who has necessarily lost 
his scimitar, seizes two monsters arranged symmetrically, each with the bird’s 
beak. We have the same design in fig. 582, where the god has four wings. In this 
case there is a Phenician or, more likely, early Aramaic inscription, but the design 
is pure Assyrian. A good example of this design appears in fig. 583, unusually 
well engraved and showing the several garments of the god as well as the care 
in decorating his enemies. Yet another is seen in fig. 584. Here we observe 
that the god wields an ax instead of a scimitar, which indicates a foreign influ- 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: BEL AND THE DRAGON. 203 


ence. A very handsomely engraved cylinder is shown in fig. 585, where the god 
is evidently Marduk with his scimitar, and the dragon is, with the exception of 
the bird’s head, the conventional Tiamat. We have also a peculiarly developed 
sacred tree. But in fig. 586, another elaborate cylinder, the design is considerably 
confused, and Marduk and Gilgamesh are combined in one. The face is that of 
Gilgamesh, and the hero, or god, holds the two griffins in the attitude familiar with 
Gilgamesh when he lifts up the lion. 

From conceiving of the dragon as a monster having a bird’s head as well as 
legs and tail, and feathers over the body, the transition was not difficult to regarding 
it as entirely a bird. But for this the favorite form was that of an ostrich and not 
of an eagle or vulture. The eagle was already the emblem of a god and was regarded 
as a bird of good omen. But the ostrich was the largest bird known, a mysterious 


? 
og Pa a 
z A Ail 


pial ls 2 


ee 





inhabitant of the deserts, swift to escape and dangerous to attack. No other bird 
was so aptly the emblem of power for mischief. ‘To conquer the ostrich was a feat 
like that of overcoming the buffalo or the lion. Accordingly in the period about 
the eighth and seventh centuries B. C., when the Assyrian glyptic art was at its best, 
the contest of Marduk with an ostrich was a favorite subject. ‘The feathers of the 
ostrich attracted the skilful hand of the engraver. A good example of this is seen in 
fig. 587, where Marduk, with his scimitar lifted above his head, seizes an ostrich 
by the tail, while another smaller ostrich precedes. In this case the smaller one 
does not seem to be aiding the god, but rather to be fleeing also from him. We 
may probably consider it as taking the place of the small dragon on the older seals, 
but misconceived by the artist. 

More frequently the god seizes the ostrich by the neck. Such a case is shown 
in fig. 588. The four-winged god with his right hand holds his scimitar, and with 
the left hand chokes the ostrich, while the owner of the seal looks on in worship. 


204 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


The most famous and one of the best examples of this scene is that shown in 
the cylinder of the Armenian king Urzana, given in fig. 589. Here the four-winged 
god grasps two ostriches, arranged in bilateral symmetry. As each hand seizes an 
ostrich it is not possible for him to carry his scimetar. The inscription reads: 

Seal of Urzana, King of the City of Muzazir, the capital city, which is fortified (?) with wshu 
stone, which is built high up on dangerous mountains in full view.— Price. 

This king met Sargon in battle 714 B. C. The history of this cylinder, one of 
the earliest to reach European scholars, is given in Chapter 11. It is now in the 
Museum of The Hague. The inscription is not reversed on the seal. 

In fig. 590, which appears to be later, or at least less carefully engraved, the 
god, still four-winged, seizes the two ostriches by the neck. Under the winged 
emblem of Ashur is a star, and under that the conical column with its two streamers, 
which probably still symbolizes Marduk notwithstanding the added streamers. 
By it is what may be a vase, and we find also a fish and a rhomb. A yet coarser 
example, wholly cut with the wheel, is shown in fig. 591. The right-hand column 





is again the emblem of Marduk, and the other may perhaps represent Nebo, under 
an unusual form. In an equally rude cylinder, but cut in a soft stone with the free 
hand, is fig. 592, where the kneeling god seizes the ostrich by the neck and holds 
the scimitar in his other hand. Among other examples may be mentioned fig. 593, 
in which the god seems to carry a stone as weapon, as well as his own scimitar. 
Similarly in fig. 594 the god carries three weapons, a scimitar, a stone, and a bow. 
In fig. 595 the god stands with one foot on an ibex, and in the field we observe a 
star, a crescent, and a low plant. In this connection, for the sake of the ostrich, 
we may consider fig. 597, although it is quite doubtful whether it represents a god 
or a mere hunting scene. ‘The attitude, which is very fine, is quite unlike the 
formal Assyrian work, but we have remnants of Assyrian writing. ‘The strong 
and hairy hunter, quite nude, attacks a lion, while before it is a deer and behind 
it an ostrich. 

There are a few examples of cylinders in which evidently the same god Marduk 
has a fight not with a single ostrich, nor even with two symmetric ostriches, but 
with three very strong and vicious birds, a sort of Stymphalides. Such an example 
is in fig. 596. The design is about the same in the several cases: in each the god 
seizes one bird by the neck, another by the leg, while a third on its back on the 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: BEL AND THE DRAGON. 205 


ground is savagely attacking the god’s foot. We are reminded of the battle of 
Hercules Melkarth with the three birds, olor, aquila, and vultur, related to the 
constellation Lyra, according to Robert Brown, Jr., in “Academy,” July 20, 1895. 
Very much like this is fig. 598. (Compare fig. 526.) But we have an interesting 
variation in fig. 599 where the god, holding in one hand what may be a net or 
lasso, puts his foot on the bird, while a scorpion-man looks on, whether in support 
of the god or the bird is not very clear. There is also what looks like a goat. 
We may judge that the scorpion-man is the foe of the god from the cases in 
which a god attacks a scorpion-man, or even two such monsters. Such a case we 
have in fig. 600. But in a very rude, and doubtless late, cylinder (fig. 601) we find 
the scorpion-man, the Sagittarius of the Zodiac, pursuing a dragon, which seems 
to have the head of a bird. 








It was doubtless the Egyptian influence that led to the later frequent represen- 
tation of the Tiamat-dragon foe of the demiurge Marduk as a sphinx. The sphinx 
came, however, so late into Assyrian art that we are not to regard it as an immediate 
result of the Egyptian conquests of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties; nor 
yet does it seem to have been as early as the Hittite and Syrian seals, which were 
immediately influenced by that conquest. In the reign of Assurbanipal this was 
a very favorite design, and we can hardly be mistaken in seeing here the influence 
of the later Assyrian conquest of Egypt, although we can not be certain but that 
in some cases the seals are earlier. An unusual illustration, which combines both 
conventions, that of the bird-headed dragon (or griffin) and the sphinx, is shown 
in fig. 602. It was not to be expected that the artist would venture thus to break the 
rule of complete symmetry, yet we have such cases in fig. 603 and fig. 604. In fg. 
603 the presence of the nude winged goddess shows the Western, Syrian, or Hittite 
influence. 

While the composite scorpion-man, in the form of a Sagittarius, is bearded, 
the sphinx is usually beardless. It would hardly be safe to conclude that this is 


206 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


due to the memory that Tiamat was feminine. It is quite as likely that in following 
the Egyptian form the Assyrians retained its usual convention. ‘The Greeks natu- 
rally assumed that the beardless sphinx was feminine. 





, 605 3 606 
Yet occasionally the vagary of the artist led him to give the sphinx a beard. 
Such would naturally be the case when it was developed from a bull, as in fig. 605, 
where the bull’s horn is retained in a way to suggest the unicorn. Here we have 
Ashur’s winged disk over the sacred tree. Also in fig. 606 the sphinxes seem to be 








nude, though the wings of the god and his peculiar dress show that this is not a purely 
Assyrian seal, and the little dogs suggest the same thing. But in a large and vigor- 
ous design shown in fig. 607 it is clear that the sphinx is bearded, while the god 
carries the weapon of Marduk. To be sure, he has his foot on the bull of Adad, 
which again illustrates the confusion of the mythology of this late period. 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: BEL AND THE DRAGON. 207 


Many illustrations might be given of the beardless sphinx. One of these is 
shown in fig. 608, where the god holds his scimitar, and we have the winged disk 
of Ashur and a worshiper. Another excellent one, more than usually developed, 
is seen in fig. 609, where a bird and an ibex are seen under the wings of the sphinx, 
and the winged Ashur shows the triple heads over the worshiper. In another (fig. 
610) the god, in a short garment, more like that of a Hittite god, carries the scimitar 
of Marduk. There are also two sitting apes and a half-length worshiper. A 
peculiar case appears in fig. 611, in which the god grasps the sphinx, much as Gilga- 
mesh might a lion, while preparing to kill it with his scimitar. Under the winged 
disk is a human-headed bull, with hands lifted as if to support it, as is sometimes 


cam 


Wy 








Ry 
SSS 
SO 


Sa 
S 

(ig 
Fa LTTE 


= 





seen in Hittite art, where two bulls are in this attitude under the winged disk. 
Besides there are a worshiper, a crescent, a star, a rhomb, and a fish. In the case 
of fig. 612 we observe the short embroidered skirt of the god and the two low plants. 
There are peculiar features in fig. 613. Here the god has his foot on a third sphinx. 
We have also the nude winged goddess, front view, but face in profile, which sug- 
gests a western or northern influence. In fig. 614 the god lifts two winged sphinxes 
by the hind leg, and above are two small animals in a recumbent position. 

Very numerous are the Assyrian cylinders in which the god attacks a winged 
bull. It is not easy to conceive of the winged bull, the good spirit which protects 
the entrances of Assyrian palaces, as a form of Tiamat, spirit of chaos and all evil. 
It is much more likely that there is here the confusion which we have observed 
between Marduk and Gilgamesh, and that we have a variation of the Gilgamesh 


208 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


myth, in which the bull attacked by the hero, as well as the hero himself, is orna- 
mented with wings. But the bull is by no means always winged. Thus in fig. 615 
the convention of one of the forms of the Gilgamesh story is well revived. ‘The god 
lifts the bull, here the short-horned bison, by a hind foot, while on the other side 
it is attacked by a lion. This is an unusually fine and large seal, in red quartz. 
On the ends the copper plates are preserved, through which the doubled copper 
wire passed, making a loop at one end of the cylinder, for suspension, and the two 















SDs 
NI Fe 
LAWS 


= 





S, 


ie: 
wel CAUTION 








618 619 
extremities of the wire are clamped over on the other end. So in fig. 616 the bulls 
are not winged and the thick hair of the bison is well expressed. ‘The bull with 
wings is seen in fig. 619 where the god carries his scimitar, and in fig. 618 where 
he attacks two bulls. A very elaborate example of gem engraving is given in fig. 
617, which shows admirably the rich embroidered garments with their succession 
of fringes. 

The artist may vary his conceit as well as his symmetry, by representing the 
god as attacking on the one side a lion-sphinx and on the other a winged bull. Such 





a case we have in fig. 620, where we have also, in the field, an ibex, a star, a fish, 
perhaps a scorpion-man, and another uncertain object. In fig. 621 he attacks on 
one side a winged bull and on the other a griffin. 

In quite a number of cases the god, generally without wings, attacks not a 
composite animal, but a lion or bull or other animal naturalistically drawn. There 
may be figured with him, however, a subordinate object which indicates his divine 
character. We have such a case in fig. 622, where the god, attacking a lion with 
his scimitar, has his foot on a griffin. There is also a sacred tree evidently patterned 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: BEL AND THE DRAGON. 209 


ona palm. We may safely assume that it is the same scene that is depicted in other 
cases, as in fig. 623, where the god is identified solely by his characteristic scimitar. 
Another example appears in fig. 625, where we have the winged disk, the crescent, 
the star, and a low plant or sacred tree. It is the same god who in fig. 624 attacks 
a bull, while a scorpion-man stands behind the god. Equally in fig. 626 we see the 
god attacking a bull, while we have a sitting monkey, a sacred tree under the winged 
emblem of Ashur, a crescent, and the Egyptian crux ansata. Quite curious, and 
showing decided foreign influence, is fig. 627, in which the rudely drawn winged 
god seizes two ibexes. Equally foreign seems fig. 628, in which the god is on horse- 
back and shoots with his bow, after the Parthian fashion, a winged monster, perhaps 
a horse, which pursues him, while under his own horse is a headless man, and a 
bird follows, perhaps to feed on the carcass. It is by no means clear in this case 
that we have a variant of the story of Bel and the dragon; it may be the rendition 
of quite another tale current among the wilder hunters of the countries to the north 
or east. Indeed in all these more naturalistic scenes we appear to feel the influence 











TamR 629 


of the early Babylonian art with the contests with wild beasts of Gilgamesh and 
Fabani, quite as much as that of Marduk and Tiamat. 

In this connection we may properly consider those cases in which the wild 
imagination of the artist is directed towards the god as well as his antagonist. We 
have already seen in fig. 576 the god replaced by a scorpion-man. Other variations 
occur. Another such case we see in fig. 630, where a scorpion-man shoots at a lion. 
In fig. 629 a bull is pursued by a sort of archer-centaur, but with the hind legs of 
an eagle. Other accessories in this very rude example are a star, a crescent, a 
thomb, a fish, and a simple plant or tree. Quite similar is fig. 631. Here a centaur- 
archer attacks the fleeing dragon. In the field are a star, a crescent, and a fish. 
In neither of the last two cases can one suppose a purely Assyrian design; and the 
guilloche border here indicates as much. Yet this is not in the style of the Syro- 
Hittite cylinders which we shall consider later. Fig. 21 shows us a centaur of the 
Kassite period. Very probably we have here a hunter god, a sort of Esau, of one 
of the neighboring regions whose mythology and whose art can not yet, with our 
imperfect materials, be separated from those of Assyria which affected them so 
much. A similar centaur is shown in fig. 632, in which the archer-centaur shoots 

14 


210 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


a lion-headed winged creature, which has the tail of a lion, but apparently the body 
of a horse. In this case we have the remains of what was a rude guilloche border. 
In fig. 633 the centaur has the body of a lion and attacks a lion. 

In other cases the god takes the head and wings of an eagle, such as was called 
Nisroch in the earlier days of Assyriology, when the name of Nisroch was imagined 
to be somehow derived from a Hebrew word for “eagle”; but it is more likely 
that the name “ Nisroch”’ is a corruption for either Marduk or Nusku. 

A good example of this is shown in fig. 634, in which both the god and his 
antagonist are eagle-headed, while between them is the bull over which they seem 
to be fighting. This style is much like that of the ninth century, of the time of 
Assurnazirpal. In fig. 635 two winged gods appear to be fighting over a prostrate 
bull, while between them is a winged sphinx with his head turned backward. We 
have another very neat example in fig. 636. Here the god seizes a bull by the tail 
and, reaching his other hand behind him, touches the same bull’s mouth. In 
fig. 637 a wingless god seizes two ibexes by the horn. The scene 1s inclosed by 











oe ia 

ae Ny) 
a _ 

two spear-pointed columns and below are a crook and a trident. In fig. 638 the 


god is again wingless and holds a scimitar and seizes a lion by the head. It is very 
doubtful whether in such cases as these we are to consider the god as Marduk or 
any other chief deity. He is quite as likely to be one of the multitude of subordinate 
protecting powers which the Assyrians loved to represent as guarding their palaces 
and temples, like the cherubs of the Hebrew religion and the Amshasbands of 
Zoroastrianism. Yet it is one of these winged subordinate deities that is kneeling 
before the god as he seizes the bull, such a figure as stands by the sacred tree. 

In the study of the Persian seals we shall have occasion to observe the develop- 
ment, or rather the degradation, of this motif of Bel and the dragon. It became 
dominant in the Avestan religion, but was less developed in Persian art. It appears 
early in Egyptian and in the contest between Horus and the serpent Apep (figs. 
639, 640); and we may presume that it was by the combination of the Assyrian (or 
Babylonian) story of Bel and the Dragon with the Egyptian story of Horus and Apep 
that we get the two examples (figs. 578, 579) with the serpent. It was confused with 
the myth of Gilgamesh, and in this form reached Greek art and mythology, so that 
Hercules strangled both lions and serpents. We still retain it in the story of Saint 


George and the dragon (fig. 647), the saint being simply another form for Marduk. 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: BEL AND THE DRAGON. OAT 


In the Sassanian period of Persia we have a very interesting illustration of the 
same thought of the conflict between the powers of light and darkness, order and 
chaos, the demiurge and Satan, in fig. 641. Here the dragon is again a serpent, 
as in Egypt, the two figures 578, 579, and in the Genesis story of the temptation 
of Adam. The god on horseback, like Saint George, pierces 
the seven-headed serpent with his spear. The foe of the gods 
was a serpent in the Avestan literature. Azi-dahaka was 
“three-mouthed, three-headed, six-eyed, who has a thousand 
senses, that most powerful, fiendish drug.” (“Sacred Books 
of the East,” Zend-Avesta, 11, p. 294.) And there was “the || 














snake Srvara, the horse-devouring, men-devouring, yellow, 639 

poisonous snake, over which yellow poison flowed a thumb’s breadth thick” (zb., p. 
295). With this should be compared a round seal with a god on horseback spear- 
ing a one-headed serpent figured by Levy, “Siegel und Gemmen,” Tafel 1, a, on 
which Mordtmann recognizes three probably Pahlavi, and Levy Sabean, characters. 















Ns 
UN 
——] 


We may here, though very doubtfully, consider a very few cylinders in which 
a god, or two gods, may'attack what seems to be a giant figure, partially or wholly 
human, that has been forced upon his knees. In fig. 642, a cylinder which seems 
to be of an early period and from the region about Assyria, the giant, if we may 
call him so, has fallen on one knee and rests his hands unresistingly on his hips. 
He is clad in a close garment about his body. He wears a crown of feathers, with 
two strange feathered curls on each side of his head, which is in front view. On 
each side he is attacked by a god (but very likely meant only for a single god treated 
symmetrically) with quivers from his shoulders, as Adad is represented with Ishtar. 
One of the gods smites with an ax and the other with a sword. There is a worshiper 
and also a small tree. With this is to be compared fig. 643, where the gigantic mon- 
ster has great clawed feet and his head has a single curl on each side. He 1s attacked 
by a god, presumably, with a sickle weapon and with curious spurs to his feet, who 
looks backward towards a fish. In this case the radiations from the head and the 
lack of beard on the monster, together with the sickle-shaped scimitar, naturally 
suggest that this is an early form of Perseus killing the Gorgon. But it is not likely 


dd We SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


that these are female figures, and we do not see, as in the archaic forms of the Greek 
Gorgon, either the protruding tongue or the wings. This is more likely to be some 
figure corresponding to the giants with whom Zeus and the other gods fought, 
although their legs do not take the form of serpents, as in the Gigantomachia. 
Another example, apparently somewhat later, is shown in 644. The “giant” 
appears to be bearded and has a horned headdress. He is attacked on each side 
by a god, one of whom lifts an ax. There is a worshiper of the Assyrian type, and 
there are also the crescent, the seven dots, and the asheras of Marduk and Nebo. 





With these three cylinders may be compared a fourth (fig. 645) of a quite unusual 
type, in that it gives us only the head of the “giant” and the head of a fantastic 
animal. The human head is clearly bearded from the mouth, and so not a feminine 
necklace ornament, and we see the same kind of curls as are shown in fig. 642. 
‘There are also a star, a rhomb, and a crescent over the ashera of Marduk. 

In the case of these designs we have beyond question a conflict between a god 
and his foe, the monstrous enemy being completely overcome. In fig. 646, however, 





ae 
Sy nN 
& 


S 
ee ei iS 
— 


\ 

SS 
Sp 6 

i, 

Zz 


a Xk 


WS 


sede 
BSSys 
5 


< p 
NB 
SA\\ 
Su SIN 
4 MK 
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BA DN IVA 





the same personage seems more definitely to be assimilated to Gilgamesh. The 
position, the dress, and the crown are as in the designs just shown, but he lifts by 
the leg two ibexes attacked by winged lion-like monsters, while a small four-winged 
deity attacks the two monsters. Yet it is not at all clear that this design has any 
genetic relation with the Chaldean notion of the fight between Bel and the dragon. 
Indeed it is probable that it has an independent origin. It may have a relation to 
the Egyptian Bes, who was in Egypt a foreign god; and on the other hand it is not 
unlikely that it is related to the Greek Gigantomachia. 


CHAPTER XXXVII. 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE SPOUTING VASE. 


One of the most remarkable and imaginative of the motives of the early Baby- 
lonian art is that of the gift of water to man. ‘The gods were the source of water. 
It was from the gods that water must be supplied to their world, whether in the 
form of rain or by the successive risings of the Tigris and Euphrates. We have 
an admirable illustration of this in fig. 129. One of the gods, Ea, was particularly 
the god of waters and wisdom. His charge was the lower waters, the waters of the 
ocean and the earth, of rivers and fountains; all the waters that are under the 
heavens and those that have subterranean sources. The waters that are above 
the heavens were controlled by Shamash. His emblem is easy to recognize. It is 
the solar disk, with four triangular rays, which later develop into a Greek cross. 
These rays point outward from the center and, alternating with them, there are 
four streams of water represented by two or three undulating lines, as frequently seen, 
particularly in the bas-relief of the Sun-god from Abu-habba (fig. 310). Shamash 
sails through the upper waters in a boat, as seen in fig. 293. I have identified the 
numerous figures, from the art of the older Chaldean Empire, of a seated god hold- 
ing a vase from which streams of water gush, as the Sun-god Shamash, and I so 
designated him in my “Handbook” Catalogue of the cylinders in the Metropolitan 
Museum. M. Léon Heuzey, however, the most profound scholar who has studied 
the origins of Babylonian art, has brought evidence to show that in some cases the 
god with the spouting vase is Ea. In his luminous paper “Sceau de Goudéa” 
(Revue d’Assyriologie, v, 4, 1902) and in a previous chapter “Le Symbole du 
Vase Jaillissant” in his “Les Origines Orientales ” M. Heuzey has gathered the 
evidence which assigns to Ea these and other representations of gushing or spouting 
vases, and on his study much of the discussion of this chapter must rest. 

The earliest representation of this vase to which we can assign an approxi- 
mate date is that on the famous seal of the Elder Sargon (fig. 26). A kneeling 
figure de face, exactly that of the Gilgamesh who fights lions and buffaloes, holds 
a vase, shaped like an aryballos, one hand on its neck and the other supporting 
its bowl. From the mouth of the vase spout up two streams which fall to the ground, 
and from one of which a buffalo drinks, lifting his head to the water. ‘The water- 
buffalo is the Bubalus, which had not then been domesticated, but roamed wild in 
the swamps of the lower Euphrates. The design is evidently mythological, and 
represents the gift of water to a water animal, and so to the world. But it is not 
easy to decide whether the personage who supplies the water is Gilgamesh or some 
other god. One would look for Ea, if the figure were not so characteristically that 
of Gilgamesh. But we have no literary evidence that this role belonged to Gil- 
gamesh. If it did belong to him it must have been after his death. We shall find, 
however, that Gilgamesh, or a figure like him, is related to superior gods, and we 
may have here an attendant of the great Water-god Ia. It must also be considered 
that the facial types which the Chaldean artist could draw upon were very few, 

213 


214 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


and others than Gilgamesh might have his head and curls. It has been more than 
once suggested that the two streams which in the case of the Sargon seal, as usually, 
fall from the vase, represent the two rivers ‘Tigris and Euphrates; but it is more 
likely that the controlling principle of symmetry explains the two streams. For a 
number of other illustrations see the chapter devoted to “Gilgamesh with the 
Spouting Vase.” 

The design of the spouting vase is not found on the archaic cylinders which 
antedate the time of the Elder Sargon, unless an exception be made for fig. 102. 
This interesting seal shows a boat in a swamp of reeds frequented by wild boars. 
It is propelled by two boatmen, with poles, and between them stands a god in a 
horned hat, with two streams from his shoulders, and perhaps rays also. On each 
side are fish. ‘There is no vase visible and the streams are not waving, but they 
can hardly be anything but streams. This may be the Sun-god in his boat, or per- 
haps Ea in his native element. This design became quite frequent after this time. 
A very interesting old example, probably not much later than Sargon, is shown in 
fig. 648. The god is set in a recess surrounded by waters, and a stream of water 
falls from his body on each side. On either side, as an attendant, with a mace as 





648 649 
a badge of office, stands the figure of Gilgamesh. He often appears in this form and 
evidently represents not a principal god, but a subordinate divinity, like the two 
porters who stand by the gates of the Sun-god Shamash. M. Heuzey makes the 
brilliant suggestion that this sort of mace held by the Gilgamesh and Eabani figures 
is the door-post of a wattled gate, such as is seen in fig. 205 and elsewhere, 
so that this is really an attendant porter. We can conceive him to be, in the 
Sargon cylinder, the assistant or intermediary of Shamash in providing water; 
but there is every appearance that in fig. 648 the god in the recess is Ea, and 
not the Babylonian Noah, as George Smith suggested. 

For the seal shown in fig. 649 we are indebted to M. Heuzey, who has copied 
it from an “empreinte.”’ It is evidently taken from a cylinder of about the Gudea 
period. A standing deity, in a long flounced garment, stands on a goat-fish and a 
man-fish. In each of his hands he holds a spouting vase. From one of them the 
single stream falls into a vase held in the hands of the man-fish, while from the other 
two streams gush and fall into a vase on the head of the goat-fish. By the latter 
stream stands Gilgamesh holding a vase, which it might be supposed he was filling 
from the stream, unless the drawing from an imperfect impression has failed to 
show that there is a stream from the vase held by Gilgamesh. On each side of the 
head of the god the figures of the goat-fish and the man-fish are repeated. 

The meaning of this design is clear, and there can be little doubt that Heuzey 
is right in recognizing Ea. It can not be Shamash, as Shamash is figured on the 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE SPOUTING VASE. 215 


same seal, with his foot on his conventional mountain. It is especially appropriate 
that Ea should be figured as supplying water to the creatures of the deep, the goat- 
fish Capricorn and the man-fish, in whom Heuzey recognizes Oannes. This also 
makes Gilgamesh the attendant of Ea. The goat-fish is the special emblem of 
Ea, and forms the base of the seat, in the kudurrus or so-called boundary stones, 
on which the column of Ea, with the ram’s head, rests, as shown in the chapter on 
the Emblems of the Gods. For other and much later examples of a god seated or 
standing on the goat-fish, see figs. 755-758. 

Another beautiful design of the same nature (fig. 650) is given by Heuzey, 
from the impression on a tablet of a cylinder which contained an inscription stat- 
ing that it belonged to “Gudea, patesi of Shirpurla,” or Tello. For description 
see fig. 368a. We can hardly doubt that the seated god is Ea. 

M. Heuzey speaks of the god with serpents (Ningishzida) as helping the god 
to support the vase by his hand under it. We may, however, imagine that he is 
receiving it, to present it, as the god’s gift of water, to Gudea. The god is abun- 
dantly supplied with water, as shown by these ten gushing streams, and has 





many more vases which he can continuously supply to the world. One seems to 
see the descent from the upper to the lower waters, the “tzamat eliti”’ and the “tra- 
mat shapliti,” on a fragment in King’s “Seven Tablets of Creation,” 1, p. 197. The 
design would then not only honor the god as the giver of water to the world, but 
would also honor Gudea as the patesi, who had, by making canals, supplied irri- 
gation for his subjects. It must be remembered that no work of rulers was held to 
be more important than the digging and repairing of canals. They repeatedly 
claim in the record of their achievements the honor of having thus provided for the 
sustenance and welfare of their people. For an interesting variation see fig. 39a, 
where a goddess appears to be rising out of the vase with the stream, but such may 
not have been the intention of the artist. 

The cases are few in which Ea can be recognized in the Babylonian art. It 
must be remembered that he was a primitive god, whose worship went much out of 
fashion, because he was the god of Eridu, a city which early lost its preéminence. 
Marduk became the chief local god of Babylon, and other cities had their special 
deities, but the favorite popular gods of the people were Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar; 
the Sun, the Moon, and Venus. In Chapter xvi, on the Seated God, evidence has 
been given to show that in some cases it is not easy to distinguish Shamash from 
Sin, and equally Ea may have been figured in much the same way. But I can not 
agree with Heuzey in thinking that the seated god with streams and fish is usually 
Ea. It is more likely to be Shamash. 


216 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


The spouting vase is, in the more ancient art, not confined to the cylinders. 
Among the fragments discovered by M. de Sarzec at Tello, and edited by M. Heu- 
zey, is a beautiful bit of stone with a succession of vases (fig. 651). Even more 
beautiful is the design on a large stone basin, an apsu or “sea” for a temple, of a 
succession of maidens holding vases (fig. 653). “The design 
is very graceful, each maiden holding the neck of a vase 
with one hand, while the next maiden’s hand supports it 
underneath, just as the two figures of Gilgamesh support 
the vase in fig. 880. A figure of the goddess Aa with the 
spouting vase is to be seen in fig. 652. Her name, with 652 
that of her husband Shamash, appears in the inscription. There is a worshiper 
with a servant bearing offerings, while behind the god is an uncertain emblem. 

The further use of the spouting vase in the Babylonian art has been sufficiently 
considered in the chapter on the spouting vase of Gilgamesh (Chapter x1) and that 
on the seated god with streams (Chapter xiv), and elsewhere. But in the Assyrian 
art this design had a new development. Indeed it began in Babylonia, perhaps, 
rather than Assyria, if we may judge from fig. 654. This belongs to the general 
Kassite style, which continued into the time of the Second Empire. Between an 






laa 
ZB 


SUED RED 


BI 


UK 











indefinite god and his consort is the man-fish above holding a vase from which 
two streams fall and cross, to meet in a vase held by a kneeling bearded figure 
below. This kneeling figure we may take to be a variant of Gilgamesh, or as the 
representative of the king, or of men, receiving the gift of water from above. As 
so frequently, the fish beside the stream certify the meaning. ‘The inscription reads: 

Dim-kira-badna 

Son of Ushag-Bel. 

May he be illustrious! may he be great! may he be victorious! 

With long days may he be blessed! 

With goodly property, food and drink! 

As a charm was this seal made. —Price. 

Fig. 655 is purely Assyrian, as indicated by the style of the inscription, which 
is not reversed on the seal itself, showing it was more an amulet than a seal. 
The inscription in three scattered lines indicates that Adad was the tutelary god. 
Under the winged disk, in the place of the usual sacred tree, is a kneeling female 
figure, with hands lifted to the wings of the disk; and on each side of her is a bearded 
and winged genius, lifting one hand and holding a pail or basket. “These figures 
with a pail may indicate the supply of water for man, just as in the same figures 
with the sacred tree they indicate that the blessings, or fortunes, of the tree are 
supplied to the owner of the seal. While one thinks of Nina, the goddess related to 
fish and water, it is very doubtful if we can identify the kneeling figure. All the 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE SPOUTING VASE. 210 


more is it doubtful because in fig. 656, another very fine cylinder, the kneeling 
figure under the winged disk is bearded. Here there are no vases, but the water 
entirely embraces the god, as in fig. 648. It is also to be observed that the cord 
which usually falls from under the wings of the disk, and which ends in a tassel and 
is grasped by the worshiper, is here also a stream of water. This very interesting 
cylinder belonged to the poet Henry W. Long- 
fellow, who presented it to the Semitic Museum 
of Harvard University; it was one of the seals 
brought to Europe by Rich. 

The man-fish is not frequent on the cylin- 
ders and is not always accompanied by streams. 
In fig. 657 the Assyrian god who fights with 
various mythological creatures grasps by the 
wrist a man-fish on each side. In fig. 658 a 
worshiper stands before the man-fish and two 
streams fall to the ground, or, rather, to a round dot, to which, in the cone seals, 
the vase is reduced, as in figs. 659, 660. Another ill-drawn Assyrian cylinder with 
a god holding a vase with streams is figured in Ouseley’s “Travels in Various 
Countries in the East,” vol. 11, plate xxxvut. 

In fig. 661 the streams are present, while in fig. 661a a hand reaches down to 
touch the goat-fish. Unfortunately the body attached to the arm is lost in the 
fracture. 








Before leaving this subject it is well to call attention, here following Heuzey, 
to the statue of a god in the palace of Khorsabad, as given by Place, “Ninive et 
l’Assyrie,” 111, plate xxx1 brs, figs. 1, 2, and shown in figs. 6624 and 662). The 
streams from the vase which the god holds with both hands fall down his body 
before and behind. This may represent Ea, or, quite as likely, considering that 
there are only two sets of horns to his turban, an inferior deity in charge of the 
waters. Heuzey recognizes the mistake of earlier writers in supposing this to be a 
statue of the Assyrian Sargon. 


218 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


It was Ea who gathered the waters of the lower sea, the tiamat shapliti, which 
Shamash sent down from the tiamat eliti. The great lower waters are thus described 
in a hymn (King’s “Seven Tablets of Creation,” p. 129): 

O thou River who didst create all things, 
When the great gods dug thee out, 
They set prosperity upon thy banks. 
In the midst of thee Ea, the King of the Deep created his Peaster 
The deluge they sent not before thou wert! 
Fire and wrath and splendor and terror 
Have Ea and Marduk presented unto thee! 
Thou judgest the cause of mankind! 
O River, thou art mighty! O River, thou art 
supreme! O River, thou art righteous. 


Occasionally it is a goddess who is related to the streams. In the ancient 
design on the great basin of Shirpurla (fig. 653) it was a maiden who held the vase. 
In fig. 655 it is a female figure that rules the waters. - We recall that in the Zend- 
Avesta it was Anaitis, Ardvi Anahita, who was worshiped as the “Holy Water- 
Spring.” She says (Aban Yost, 5): 

“From this river of mine alone flow all the waters that spread all over the seven 
Karshvaris. This river of mine alone goes on bringing waters both in summer 


tae) 


and in winter. 
































662a 662b 

For her “‘ Ahura-mazda made four horses—the wind, the rain, the cloud, and the 
sleet—and thus ever upon the earth it is raining, snowing, hailing, and sleeting”’ 
(7b., 119). While the Persian mythological form is late, it doubtless is derived from 
the conceptions drawn from the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon and cosmology. 

In cases in which the water is presented to a worshiper, as in fig. 650, we may 
conclude that there is a relation with the water of life mentioned in the texts. The 
god presents the water of life to Gudea. So the streams that issue from cups held 
in the hand of Shamash or other gods are the water of life. And this leads us to 
conclude that in the numerous cases in which a god holds a cup in his hand before 
a worshiper introduced to him, he is not receiving a gift from the worshiper, but is 
benignantly offering him the symbol of life and prosperity. 


CHAPTER XXXVIII. 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. 


The designation of the Sacred Tree has become so established that it may be 
used in place of the Tree of Life, which would more definitely express the purpose 
of the presence of human figures or divine figures or animals before a convention- 
alized tree. It is only by the careful inductive study of multitudes of cases in which 
it appears that we can gather what was the idea of this motive in mythologic art. 

Numerous questions will arise, which we desire to answer, avoiding the pre- 
suppositions that have been created by various hypotheses. Such questions are 
these: What was the original species of tree out of which the usual conventional 
tree has developed? In the conventional tree what are the fruits supposed to be? 
Why is the winged disk so frequently above the tree? Is the human figure before 
the tree worshiping it or worshiping the winged disk? Who are the winged figures 
often on one or both sides of the tree? Why do they hold a fruit in one hand? 
What is the purpose of the basket or pail in the other hand? Why should a fish- 
god stand by the tree? What is the relation of various animals to the tree? What 
was the historical origin of this adoration, in what country, with what people, at 
what time? These are questions that still need satisfactory answers. 

In considering this class of cylinders under the head of Assyrian art it 1s im- 
plied that we find them rather in Assyria than in Babylonia; and such 1s the fact. 
Like the fight of Bel and the dragon this belongs to the north, and not at all to the 
early south. There is not a single case to be found in which this worship of the 
sacred tree appears in the early Babylonian art. Perhaps the nearest approach to 
it is seen in the impression of a cylinder on a tablet of 
the age of Dungi, of Ur, shown in fig. 663, where we 
have what may be a tree between two hills. On one 
side is the flounced goddess Aa-Shala, and on the other 
a worshiper. There are also the heraldic eagle and 
three lines of inscription on this very peculiar cylinder. 
In the Assyrian art, however, we find it one of the most frequent and character- 
istic in use. But it covers also the region to the east and especially the west, 
being found in Persia, to some extent, although not often, and is abundant in the 
Syrian region. Evans found it as far west as the island of Crete, and says 
(“Mycenzan Tree,” p. 55) that it is associated with goats and bulls, while lions 
are associated with columns. 

Although this so-called sacred tree is distinctly Assyrian in type, the earliest 
example (fig. 664) of it that we can date is from Babylonia, on the stele of Marduk- 
iddin-akhi, for which we have a date of 1112 B. C., given us by Sennacherib, who 
tells us that he recovered two statues of deities, which Marduk-iddin-akhi, King of 
Babylonia, had captured from Tiglathpileser I., 418 years previously. ‘The stele 
shows the Babylonian king’s garments freely ornamented with the sacred tree, with 
the palm-tree trunk, and already a conventional arrangement of branches with 

219 





220 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


fruit-like cones. Although Perrot and Chipiez (Histoire de |’Art, 11, 509) have the 
tree also on the king’s helmet, with a crouched animal each side, I can see nothing 
of the sort on the photographs. The other ornaments are rosettes, lines of angles, 
and curves. While the king was Babylonian, he had relations with Assyria, and 
his garments look Assyrian. 

















SKE 


— 


\\ 
YY OM Nyy»! 


668 

So far as we can judge, fig. 665 comes from one of the older cylinders which 
give us a tree of life with figures, in this case a rampant bull on one side and a 
winged dragon on the other. The wide border of angles (chevrons) belongs to an 
early period. Here the tree is evidently the date-palm, par excellence the fruit-tree 











=~» 





ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. pall 


of the Euphrates valley. On some of these early cylinders we have low palm- 
trees, or palmettes. Such we see in fig. 666 where a worshiper on each side of a 
palm-tree seizes by the hand the cord from under the winged disk above the tree. 
We have a star over a crescent, over a second low palm, or palmette. The borders 





SEP = 
KAA 


A 
Ce 






MINIS 






MULL 
MINT 






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671 
above and below are of angles, or chevrons after an old style. Here, again, we can not 
doubt that the sacred tree is the palm. The chevrons deserve particular attention. 
They represent a style of ornamentation that was a favorite one in the Mycenzan 
period and they suggest a date from 2000 to 1200 B.C. 

Though somewhat modified, we can still recognize the palm in fig. 667, also of 
the older type. It has the winged disk over the tree and the worshiper seizing the 


aa SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


cord which connects him by its divine influence with the supreme deity, and who 1s 
repeated for symmetry. We also find the star and two small trees. As the palm- 
ette represents the palm-tree just started in growth (for the palm grows of full size 
from the ground and simply increases in height, but not in girth, each year), so 
in fig. 667 we have the palm while still a low tree. Of the same type is fig. 668 
with its border of angles. The palmette is seen many times in bas-reliefs. We 
have the same in fig. 669, where the upper register gives two worshipers before a 
tree of the older Assyrian type, surmounted by the divine disk, and a third worshiper 


A 
S 
— 
"ZB 


TLL 


KOT 


SS 


AWK 


XS 


<a> (0 








SS 
















pos eS iZ 

SS oN [[ ~ = ? = = } Z 
CTAARa (WSN Ul Alay 
ONO (Aa Pes SS SF SF SS 





673 
before a stand with a vase. The lower register shows a bull, a worshiper before a 


cow and calf attacked by a lion, and other emblems. Thus in fig. 670, from a bit of 
the embroidery on the royal garment of Assurnazirpal, we have a selection from a 
multitude of representations of both palmettes and sacred trees. It will be noticed 
that the fruit in these utterly conventional representations looks like pine cones, 
but it is rather to be thought of as the bunches of dates hanging from the tree. 
Even bunches of grapes are sometimes drawn with similar cross lines on the bas- 
reliefs. ‘These “cones” are often seen on the palmettes and equally terminating the 
branches of the trees of life; and the winged figures each side of the trees carry the 
same cones in one hand and a basket in the other. In fig. 671 the winged figure 
kneels with neither fruit nor basket in the hands stretched towards the fruit. In 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE 220 


fig. 672 the two winged figures present the fruit to the king, the basket being held 
in the other hand. In fig. 674 the winged figure (also repeated) presents the fruit 
to the king, and the basket in his hand is ornamented with the tree and the same 
winged figures in the same attitude with fruit and basket. In fig. 673 the winged 
disk of Ashur is over the tree of life and the king stands in worship on each side, 
and behind him the winged figure holds toward him the fruit, having the basket 
in the other hand. In fig. 675 the winged figure, with ornamented basket, holds a 
triple branch with two fruits, evidently before the king. In Layard, “Monuments of 
Nineveh,” 1, plate 35, there are two such winged figures, one carrying a palm branch 











‘) Ad 

ay Oy 

0) Wawa y 
AR \S 


we a 


§ SS 


= 











R\ 
WSS 
Se 
SSS 
ASS 
a SENG 
SSR 












eon 












qa EES 
Sa y BN 







SS 










7, 







LEMS p= 


Ld 





ENN 
aa 


HMA 
















SST 
Sea 
Zs 


fe 





=a 


oe 





675 


and an ibex, and the other a five-parted branch of palmettes and a spotted deer. 
In 7b., plate 36, the winged figure has the head of an eagle and carries a basket and 
fruit. In 7b., plate 38, one winged figure carries a three-parted branch ending in 
rosettes and lotus petals; while another’s branch 1s six-parted, each ending in what 
looks like the flower of a lily-of-the-valley. In 7b., plate 44, we see representations 
of the sacred tree and before it the winged bull, or the winged human figure ending 
below in the legs of a bird or a sphinx. For similar designs see Place, ‘ Ninive 
etl Assyrie aeplatess10,017,140.147; 2alsG, bottayl,. plates 20, 27.28,, etc: 

In these cases it seems generally clear that it is the palm that was the original 
of the sacred tree, as, indeed, was to be expected. And yet, rarely, we have quite a 
different type of tree represented somewhat naturalistically. Such a case we have 
in fig. 676. Here is a triple tree, with round branched heads, and on each side is 


224 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


a rampant bull, with a bird under each, and between their backs a tall tree derived 
from the palm. This triple tree, or rather the single, round-headed tree with 
crooked, short trunk, is characteristic, I think, of a late period coming down to 
Persian times, but here it is apparently more important than the taller palm. But 
this form of tree we shall see in figs. 1068, 1070, 1089, 1090. It perhaps represents 
the fig or pomegranate, beyond question some low-growing fruit-tree, quite other 
than a palm, pine, cedar, or oak. 












GD) 
i- 2) 


Pa 
pe t—TI 
YK 






o 






"BeG, 


YO 






In fig. 677 we meet another case in which a lion stands on each side of the 
conventional tree, while above are two scorpions. Here the rosette flowers at the 
foot of the tree suggest a late Persian period as in figs. 1069, 1072. In fig. 679 
Ashur is over the conventional tree with fruit like alternate acorns and pomegran- 
ates, while the winged figures, genii, stand on sphinxes. In 678 we have Ashur 
over a much conventionalized tree, a worshiper on one side and the divine figure 
with basket on the other; also a rhomb and the crescent over a plant. 

Sometimes it is solely deities that stand before the tree. Such a case is seen 
in fig. 680, probably a rather late seal, if we may judge from the stone, a blue chal- 
cedony (sapphirine) which came into use near the Persian period. Here, within close 
border lines, is a winged disk over a naturalistic palm-tree. On one side is a god, 
apparently Adad with his ax, and on the other jie 
Ishtar in her square hat and holding her ring. 
In the field are a fish, a crescent, and the seven 
stars, and behind the god stands the worshiper. 
In this case the two deities seem to lift their 
hand each toward the winged disk, rather than 
to the tree, over which the winged disk presides 
in protection. The tree is both more naturalistic 
and less important than in many of the earlier 
cases in which the figure before it holds its fruit. 

We have another case of the god before a 
sacred tree in fig. 681. Here the sacred tree is much developed with aeial 
branches, but the main trunk of the tree and the fronds at the top still preserve 
the palm pattern. There is also on the seal the figure of a running god with face 
in front view, like Gilgamesh, holding in his hand an object uncertain in the worn 
condition of the stone. Here it is not clear that the god has any relation to the tree. 

In the latter case there was no winged disk over the tree, but that is usually to 
be expected, and, indeed, is frequently developed into the head and bust of the god 
Ashur, and at times into the triple heads, one rising from each wing. An interest- 
ing case of this sort we have in fig. 682. Here the tree has, as usual, become quite 
conventional, while retaining the stem of the palm, but the fruit is more like an 





ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. 225 


acorn. On one side is the figure of a deified king in the niche in which Assyrian 
kings loved to have themselves sculptured in bas-relief on a rock near their con- 
quests; and on the other side is a female figure in the attitude of worship, probably 
before the king. Behind her, in the field, is an ibex, over what may possibly be 
two lotuses. Another case in which we have the triple figures over the winged disk 
is shown in fig. 683, where the disk, developed completely into the form of the god 
Ashur (or Ahura-mazda), is supported by two composite figures, half man and half 
bull. Between them is the sacred tree with fruit like acorns. Behind them on one 
side is a worshiper and on the other a winged figure holding a basket in one hand 
and lifting a fruit in the other. ‘This cylinder is reported to have been found in 
the Hauran, east of the Jordan. Another cylinder with a similar design is given 
in fig. 1153. Here, however, under the triple symbol of Ashur (or Ahura-mazda) 
and on each side of the sacred tree, the supporting composite figures have the 
upper body of a man, the legs of an eagle, and the tail of a scorpion. The tree is 











Os 
ei 
1) 
3 

A 


Bp 


i] 





685 682 


utterly conventionalized into an arch surrounding nds 
the female worshiper with hand lifted, and on the other a male deity. The remain- 
ing space of the seal is taken up with a figure of a god carrying in his arms two deer 
and two ibexes; he is in front view like Gilgamesh. There is a single small star 
in the field. That this design is not purely Assyrian is clear. It contains an Ara- 
maic inscription, which epigraphically seems to belong to about the fifth or sixth 
century B. C. and may be read, “ Belonging to Midbart,” a feminine name. Similar 
and also with an Aramaic inscription is fig. 684. Here we have the triple Ashur, 
the sacred tree, the two supporting figures, half man and half bull, a worshiper on 
one side, and on the other a divine figure carrying an ibex, also a rhomb and other 
uncertain emblems, and an inscription which Levy uncertainly reads: “Son of 
Whaharangs 

An excellent example, which may be regarded as somewhat earlier, appears in 
fig. 685. Here the figure of Ashur with short wings is of the more Assyrian type, 
the tree is very simple, and the two man-bulls are of the fullest size on each side, 
with one hand to Ashur and one to the tree. Behind them stands a single winged 
god with a star over his feathered hat or crown. ‘This crown seems to suggest a 
Persian or Elamite origin. In each hand the god holds the head of an ibex by the 

15 





226 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


horn. On each side of the tree is a small seated animal with one foot raised in the 
attitude of worship. ‘There is also a star. “The winged god with the star in his 
crown is the same god whom we shall see associated with Ishtar in Chapter Xt. 

Yet one other seal of this general type we may add (fig. 686). Here the tree 
is mechanically made, as indeed most of the engraving here is, with the terebra, 
and the fruit is of the acorn shape. Above it is the god Ashur in triple form, under 
which are the supporting figures, half bull. On one side is the worshiper and on 
the other a god, or subordinate protecting spirit, clothed in a fish-skin. Other 
emblems are a crescent, a star, a slender wedge, which may represent Nebo, and 
a peculiar object like a Roman cross, in which it 1s not easy to recognize Marduk. 
For another similar scene see de Clercq “Catalogue,” No. 340, where the supporting 
figures are half bull. In the Syro-Hittite art, as in fig. 949, the bull before the 
sacred tree became winged and he stands on each side of the sun in a crescent 
resting on an Ionic column, this column being derived from the date-palm rather 
than from a lotus.. 

In a number of cylinders we have a man-fish, or a god clothed in a fish-skin, 
before the tree. Such a case appears in fig. 687. Here under the winged image of 
Ashur is a formal tree, and a god in fish-skin each side holding a pail, but not a 








fruit. We have also Marduk, with his scimitar, attacking an ostrich, as shown in 
figs. 587-595, and with a quiver from his shoulder. In another case (fig. 689) the 
winged disk lacks the head of the god. On one side of the tree is the worshiper, 
and on the other the god in the fish-skin holds a pail, but not a fruit. Under a star 
isa hawk on an eminence. Fig. 688 is interesting for the reason that the duplicated 
worshiper, behind whom stands the fish-clad genius, holds in one hand a triple 
branch of fruit, such as we have seen above on the bas-reliefs from Layard’s “ Monu- 
ments,”’ seen also in fig. 696, but which seldom appears on the cylinders. The 
branch of flowers or fruit on the bas-reliefs is often carried by a winged figure, 
but may also be carried by the king as already shown. Yet another case (fig. 690) 
gives the man-fish rather than the deity clad in the skin of a fish. While unfor- 
tunately this cylinder is so broken as nearly to ruin the inscription, arranged in an 
unusual way, horizontally, enough is left to indicate that it begins with the name 
of the owner. Under the image of Ashur is the sacred tree and on each side of 
it the man-fish, which we have seen in the last chapter on both Babylonian and 
Assyrian cylinders, the human body ending in that of the fish. There stands a god 
with one foot on the body of each fish, and the other on the shoulder of the human 
portion. Apparently he holds the fruit in one hand, while the other carries the pail. 

We have in fig. 691 a large rude cylinder in which the figure of the worshiper 
simply is repeated on each side of the winged disk and tree, and the space behind 
the two figures is occupied by a star over a rhomb, over a fish, over a bird. 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. Par 


In a number of cases we have on each side of the tree of life a winged figure 
with a pail in one hand, while the other may or may not hold a fruit. Fig. 692 has 
also the emblem of Ashur, the head of a lion or monster, and a vulture feeding. 
Another like it is fig. 693, and yet another is fig. 694. 

A very characteristic example of the relation of the worshiper to the sacred 
tree is seen in fig. 695, where the worshiper, wearing the royal pointed hat, holds 
in one hand (omitted in the drawing) the cord from Ashur, while the other hand is 
lifted in adoration. Behind the king is the eagle-headed winged spirit, with one hand 
lifted and the other holding the pail. The fact that the inscription is not reversed on 
the cylinder indicates its value as an amulet. The cords from under the wings of 





694 

Ashur end in an object shaped like omega (Q.), or the emblem of Belit-Ninkhar- 
shag, here perhaps thought of as the wife of Ashur. In fig. 696 the tree is simple 
and each branch ends with fruit shaped like a much-elongated acorn. On each side 
is the winged genius, holding in his hand the three-branched baresma, which might 
suggest that it is a branch of the tree. The Ashur above has peculiar ends to the 
cords from below the wings, which remind one of the talons of the eagle of Lagash, 
or just as much of the hands that terminate the rays from the solar disk of the 
Heretic King of Egypt. 

Certain cases may be given in which simply a mythological animal is in some 
way connected with the tree and more or less related to it. What appears to be an 
early case, if we may judge not simply from the angular border and the less orna- 
mental tree, is seen in fig. 697. The main tree is very straggling, and on each side 


228 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


of it is a winged griffin, while a small tree is behind their backs. In fig. 698 the two 
“dragons” attacking a bull seem to have no relation to the tree. 


Equally little relation to the finely developed tree appears in fig. 699, where a 
figure like Gilgamesh lifts two griffins by the hind leg. We have already seen another 
example in which a portion of the design is not related to the tree in fig. 687, where 
Marduk attacks an ostrich. We have the grifhn not rampant, but walking, in fig. 700. 
Here we have the star, repeated, and the cross as emblem of the sun. In fig. 702 a 
winged dragon is on one side and on the other an unusual animal, a leopard. But this 
case is almost unique in the goat over the tree; though in fig. 701 we have two birds 








perched on the top of the tree. These are perhaps abnormal conceits on the part 
of the artist, but, as we shall see later, may be related to a mythological conception. 
In fig. 703 there is a sphinx each side of the tree above and an ibex below. ‘This 
cylinder, to be sure, is rather Syro-Hittite, and the seated deity carries an ax per- 
haps, and an animal headed-figure presents her with a lion. 

I now come to a more careful consideration of the meaning of this scene. We 
observe, first, that over the tree is regularly, although not always, the emblem of 
the supreme deity. It presides over the tree and is somehow related to it. ‘This 
winged disk becomes human in form, or even triply human: and it is gracious to 
the worshiper before the tree, as shown by the cases in which the worshiper holds 
the cord which falls from its wings. This 
recalls the various passages in the Hebrew 
Scriptures in which the worshiper of Jehovah 
is protected by his “wings” or “pinions,” 
or, as in the case of the Moabite Ruth join- 
ing the god of Israel, “under whose wings 
thou art come to trust.”” The emblem above 
is for the worship and protection of the 
human figure below, but it also presides 
over the tree, as shown by such a case as fig. 
690. In this case I do not regard the figure standing on the fish-man as human, but 
as a genius, the wings being omitted probably to make room for the inscription. 
Yet it is to be noticed that usually when the winged disk is omitted there is no 
human worshiper. 

Next we observe in several cases under the winged symbol of Ashur two com- 
posite figures, half man and half bull (figs. 683-686), or half man and half eagle 
(fig. 1153), with both hands raised under the tree until they seem to support the 
emblem above. But they also stand before the tree and are to be regarded as its 
protectors as well. In such a case as fig. 700 the griffin seems rather to be protect- 





ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. 229 


ing the tree against invasion. This instantly suggests to us the dragon, generally 
pictured on the vases as a serpent, which guarded the tree with golden apples of the 
Hesperides. 

The functions of the winged figures, genii or gods, differ. The two figures we 
have just been considering, with hands uplifted, have their relation to the winged 
disk and in part to the tree; the winged genii have their relation to the tree and 
also equally to the worshiper; not to the disk above the tree. They vary much in 
form, being sometimes indistinguishable from such a god as Marduk, but more 
frequently simple winged figures with cone and pail, or at least one of them. Or 
they may be clothed in the fish-skin, or with the fish body, or with the body of a 
scorpion, or taking the form of a griffin. Indeed, the artist may take almost any 
liberty he pleases with these fantastic figures. Only this is clear, that they are kindly, 
beneficent beings, and in some way relate the worshiper to the tree. It is to be 
observed that this winged genius is not confined to its attendance on the sacred 
tree. We observe such a case in fig. 704, in which the attendant spirit stands behind 
the goddess Ishtar, worshiped by the figure in front of her. Even more instructive 


ai 





is fig. 705 where the attendant figure, in this case with bird’s legs, standing behind 
the goddess, holds both the cone and the pail, although there is no sacred tree. 
It is evident that he carries these objects for the benefit of the worshiper rather 
than to fertilize the blossoms of the tree. 

The tree itself deserves some further consideration. As has been said, it was 
originally and normally a palm, because the palm is the most beneficent of all trees. 
That it was a palm ought to be clear from the mention of the tree in the Bible. In 
Ezekiel 41: 18, we read in the description of a temple: “It was made with cherubim 
and palm-trees, and a palm-tree was between cherub and cherub on the walls”; 
and we are told, verse 25, “On the doors of the temple cherubim and palin-trees, 
like as were made on the walls.”” In I Kings 6: 29, we are told of Solomon’s temple: 
“He carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim 
and palm-trees and open flowers.” ‘These are plainly the sacred tree between the 
winged figures on the Assyrian monuments, these winged figures corresponding to 
the biblical cherubim. To be sure it later ceased to be a naturalistic date-palm 
and became a mere ornamental and conventional tree, but not losing its fruits, 
and yet the fruit or bud or flower, whatever it may be, is no longer the pendulous 
bunch of dates, but terminates the branches. It may take the shape of an acorn, 


230 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


or of a pomegranate, or a cone, or it may take a purely imaginary shape, but yet 
it remains a fruit; or if, as in fig. 1153, the fruit itself is lost with the branches, then 
the winged genius no longer carries the cone and the pail. 

The usually accepted interpretation of this design is that the sacred tree is 
worshiped, that it was a palm, in original intent, of which there can be no doubt, 
and that the attendant figure with the “cone” in his hand really holds the stami- 
nate flowers of the male palms, with which it is necessary to dust and fertilize the 
pistillate blossoms. ‘This is requisite, and the account of it comes down to us from 
classical times. But there is absolutely no evidence that this is the meaning of the 
design. We are indebted to Mr. E. B. Tylor (Nature, June 23, 1890; “ Proceedings 
Society of Biblical Archeology,” June, 1890) for this really brilliant and fascinating 
suggestion, which is accepted by Bonavia, in his “The Flora of the Assyrian Monu- 
ments,” as also by d’Alviella in “The Migration of Symbols,” and by many other 
writers. To be sure, so far as we know from classical writers, it was not the custom 
to dust the fertile flowers with the sterile, but only to bring the sterile bunches where 
the wind would carry the pollen, but Bonavia finds in 
the winged genii the symbols of the winds. I can not 
but think that this explanation, even with its sexual 
attractiveness which so fascinates some people, is really 
farfetched, and that a nearer explanation is called for. 
Similarly I do not find any support for Bonavia’s dis- 
covery of horns about the trunk of the sacred tree, 
which horns, he tells us, are attached to trees to ward 
off the evil eye. The ornamental curves do not partic- 
ularly suggest the horns of cattle. 

There are two seals which have an important bear- 
ing on the purpose and meaning of the winged figures 
“ which accompany the sacred tree. One of these is 
a a7— shown in fig. 706. ‘This is a beautiful quartz-crystal 
cylinder, unusually well executed considering the refractory and brittle material. 
The central tree is clearly of the palm type, although conventionalized. On each 
side is the composite figure, half man and half bull, which is so often to be met. 
There are two main branches on each side, terminating in what one may call flower 
or fruit, and each of the two attendant figures seizes one in each hand. There is 
also a circle within which are four small nude kneeling figures, each of whom seizes 
with each hand the branches of the trees which alternate with them. In this case it 
is absolutely certain that the purpose of the attendant figure is not to fertilize the 
fruit; it is much more likely that the purpose is to pluck it off. 

That such is the purpose is made quite certain by the design in fig. 707, a 
cylinder which bears the inscription “Seal of Tilasharan, pashishu (exorcizer) of 
Khalkulsharya” (Price). Here again there is no question that the tree is a modi- 
fied date-palm. From the summit there arise five clusters of the fruit; and a winged 
human figure with the head of the eagle, such as is familiar in the Assyrian art, 
with evident effort is breaking off the bunch of dates, if we may so call it; he has 
rested his foot on the lower part of the tree, so as to secure a purchase for his pull, 
and with one hand he holds the fruit, while with the other he bends its stem so as 
to break it off. We are left here under no reasonable doubt that the purpose is to 








ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. 231 


gather the fruit, not to fertilize it. We may then conclude that the object of the pail 
or basket (the occasional weaving would allow either) is to hold the fruit gathered 
from the tree. This is fortunately one of the few cylinders of which we know the 
provenance. It was dug up in making a well in the region of Sulduz, a plain south 
of the Urumia plain, between Lake Urumia and the Kurdish Mountains. The cylin- 
der shown in fig. 714 was found at the same time, and the two came into the pos- 
session of the Rev. R. M. Labaree, a missionary in Urumia. 

To these two seals should be added the ornamentation 
on a Phenician bowl (fig. 708). Here two figures standing 
by the sacred tree hold each the crux ansata in one hand, 
while the other seizes a flower from the tree. 

There is one bas-relief (fig. 709) which has been adduced 
to support the idea that this is a case of fertilization of the 
pistillate by the staminate blossoms of the date-palm. Here the cone is crowded 
into a palmette on a tree of life rather than into a floral cluster. It is evident that 
the crowded slab did not allow room for the cone without its pressing into the tree. 

I do not venture to include in this class of cylinders, in which fruit is plucked 
from the tree of life, the remarkable cylinder already described in fig. 389, where two 
women are standing one each side of a naturalistic palm and are plucking its fruit, 
one handing it to a third woman, who already has a bunch in her hand. This is an 
old Babylonian cylinder, not Assyrian, and it must be otherwise conceived and 
interpreted. But I fnd a memorandum among my papers, made in Paris, that on a 
fragment of the de Morgan objects from Susa there is a figure, probably half-human, 
grasping with both hands the stem of the branch of the sacred tree. The branch 
seems twisted and its end curves the other way from the other branches. He appears 
to be breaking off the branch for the fruit. De Morgan puts the date of this at “ 3000 
to 2000 B. C.,” but it probably comes nearer 1000 B.C. Unfortunately, I have 
not preserved any reference which allows me to give a figure of it. 

But why should the fruit be gathered? I once showed a very large and unusual 
piece of old Persian embroidery to Rabbi Baba, the most learned of the Nestor- 
ians of Urumia, who has prepared a 
careful and complete dictionary of 
the Nestorian Syriac dialect. It rep- 
resented an enormous tree full of 
branches, and the branches were full 
of extraordinary conventional fruit. I 
asked him the meaning of it, and he 
replied that it typified the fortunes of 
WS man. It was then a tree of fortune. 

als Rabbi Baba told me that on a Mosul 

——=- rug of mine, having a design much 
like the Assyrian sacred tree, with its seven pairs of branches and their fruit of differ- 
ent colors, the tree represented the fortunes of life, the lower fruit light-green, mean- 
ing the ignorance of childhood, red the stirring of the blood, black trouble, ete. Such 
I take it is this sacred tree of the Assyrians and their neighbors. The fruits or flowers 
on the tree represent the life and fortunes which the possessor may enjoy. By the 
side of the tree may stand the owner in worship. It is not his part to break off the 








232, SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


fruit; that is the function of his protecting spirit, the good fairy of Western story. 
The fortunes must be stored or produced somewhere—where more naturally than on 
a tree, and what tree so fruitful as the date-palm? The Latin Fortuna (the word 
being feminine) was a goddess, and she carried the fortunes already plucked. 
Her horn of plenty, full of fruits or flowers, represents the pail, or basket, in the hand 
of the Assyrian Fortunus. Under her various names the Latin Fortuna was much 
honored, with such titles as Fors Fortuna, Fortuna Panthea, Fortuna Felix, or 
Isis Fortuna, but regularly with her gathered fruit, usually in a horn, but sometimes 
in a modius carried on her head. She might also carry ears of wheat in her hand, 
or a poppy head. It is observed that the Assyrian king, or god, in the bas-reliefs 
also may carry a three-parted or five-parted branch with fruit or flowers (figs. 669— 
675); and there are many cases in which the fruit on the sacred tree might as well 
be a poppy-head as an acorn. Fortuna is often represented with wings, like our 
Assyrian Fortunus, if we may so call the attendant spirit. 

For this attendant figure, under whatever winged shape, human or composite, 
is clearly not a chief god, but subordinate and beneficent. It is the earliest form 
we have of the “guardian angel” of later Jewish and Christian religions. It is not 
feasible to attempt to differentiate these figures standing by the tree; they are all 
of a lower grade than the gods, and protective, like the winged bulls and lions which 
the Assyrian kings put at the gates of their palaces. Similar protecting spirits are 
seen on Hittite seals, as in figs. 956, 960. 

We need not detain ourselves with the tree found by Gilgamesh, when he had 
passed through the darkness for twelve hours and come to this wonderful tree: 

It bore precious stones for fruits: 
Its branches were glorious to the sight: 


The twigs were crystals: 
It bore fruit costly to the sight. 


No more need we connect especially with the Assyrian tree of life the medicinal 
plant sought by Gilgamesh for the restoration of youth, growing by a fountain and 
which a serpent snatched trom him as soon as he had grasped it. They are not 
closely enough connected with the later tree to give us much light on the subject. 

But we can hardly hesitate to see in this tree of life the “plant of life” read 
shammu balati by Zimmern (‘ Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament,” p. 523) 
which King Adad-nirari II]. mentions when he says that his god Ashur has “ made 
his rule over the people of Assyria like the plant of life.” Asarhaddon uses this 
same formula; and in a hymn to Marduk, quoted by Zimmern, the god is praised 
as the dispenser of the plant of life. 

We know very little of what was the worship by the Hebrews of their god or 
gods of Fortune, Gad and Meni, mentioned in the Bible (Isaiah 65:11). They were 
evidently not prime deities, like Baal or Ashtoreth. We may imagine that they 
represent these subordinate gods which are attendants on the tree of fortune and 
on which the worshiper depends for his kindly fates. But in the orthodox religion 
of Judea the attendant winged spirits became cherubim. 

It is impossible not to raise the question, what was the relation between the 
sacred tree or, if one may call it so, tree of fortune, on the one side, and the tree of 
life, or that of the knowledge of good and evil, in the Genesis story of the tempta- 
tion. In the Genesis story there are thus two trees, as in the Avestan myth, and they 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. 233 


both bore fruit which Adam and Eve might eat. There were also cherubim, as 
well as a serpent. It would seem as if there must be some mythological relation 
between the tree and the cherubim of the Assyrian art and the trees and the cheru- 
bim of the Eden story. Certainly the interpretation here gives us the sacred tree 
as a tree of gifts of fortune much more in keeping with the trees of Genesis than is 
the explanation given by Mr. ‘Tylor, which sees here simply the process of fertiliza- 
tion. In both cases the fruit of the tree is for the man. He eats the fruit of the 
tree of knowledge and he is driven from the tree of life for fear he might eat of it 
and live forever. It is a tree of life because its fruit would give large life; and after 
the man had partaken of the wrong tree the cherubim stood guard over the tree of 
life that he may not eat of it. Of course, there is a contrast, in that the Assyrian 
design represents the winged cherubim, as they are called in Ezekiel and I. Kings, 
as providing the fruit, plucking it off for the worshiper, while it is the purpose of 
the Genesis writer to show how man lost immortality and the immortal fruit by 
being deceived into taking the fruit of another tree, and then the guardian cher- 
ubim became as hostile as the dragon of the Hesperides. We may then see that 
the Genesis story and the Assyrian sacred tree throw light on each other. 

It is to be observed that in the Kabbala the tree of life represents the Shiph'ah 
or providential supply which man receives from God. It is thus parallel to the 
horn of plenty of Fortune. 

That, in the Oriental imagination, the fruits of the tree of life are considered 
as being eaten, appears in Revelation 22:2, where we read: “And on this side of 
the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding 
its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”’ 
Certainly the Assyrian sacred tree, as well as the tree of Eden, is connected with 
this thought of the tree of life transplanted into Heaven. The tree of life is also 
mentioned in Proverbs. Wisdom “is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her,”’ 
3:18, and we are told that “the fruit of the righteous 1s a tree of life,” 11: 30; that 
“‘an accomplished desire is a tree of life,” 13:12; and that “healing of the tongue 1s 
a tree of life, and perverseness therein is a broken bolt”’ (beriach for beruach, after 
Ehrlich), 15:4. The tree of life evidently bears fruit. 

It may be mentioned that the sacred tree lingers in modern Oriental art, even 
where its meaning seems forgotten. It is often to be seen on brasswork or rugs. 
Dr. Birdwood, in his “Indian Arts,” says that the tree of life on the Yarkand rugs 
is a pomegranate, but it may be more formal in Persian and Turkish rugs. 

Before concluding this investigation of the sacred tree it may be well to add 
that there is no basis for the statement made by Schrader, Delacouperie, and others 
that the number seven prevails in the branches of this tree. For an investigation 
of this matter see Ward, “The Asserted Seven-fold Division of the Sacred Tree,”’ 
“Journal of the Exegetical Society,” 1887, pp. 151-155. 

It is also impossible to relate the Assyrian sacred tree to the numerous local 
sacred trees in Egypt, or to the great heavenly tree, single or double. ‘These are 
never, I believe, heraldic. One may recall, however, the early text of King Pepi I., 
on whose pyramid it is inscribed that he sits with the gods at the great lake, and 
receives from them of the fruit of the tree on which they feed. 

While there are mythical trees in the early Babylonian stories, it is not clear 
that they are closely related to the sacred tree of Assyria. They are either a palm 


234 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


or acedar. There was a sacred grove said to have grown in the Paradise of Adapa 


at Eridu. ; 
In Eridu there grew a dark palm, by a pure place it sprouted up; 

Its appearance was shining as lapis lazuli; it overshadowed the ocean; 
Where is the course of Ea in Eridu, full to overflowing; 

Whose habitation is the place of the Underworld; 

His dwelling-place is the residence of Gur (Bau?); 

Within the shining house, shaded like a forest, where no man dare enter; 
There dwell Shamash and Tammuz 

Between the mouths of two rivers. 


Related to this would appear to be the claim by Rim-Sin, about 2200 B.C., 
to be the “Conjurer of the holy tree of Eridu”’ (“ Keilinsch. Bibl.,” 111, p. 94). 

In the Gilgamesh epic there is a mythic cedar tree. It grows on a mountain 
of cedars in the sanctuary of Irnina and is guarded by the Elamite king Humbaba. 
When Gilgamesh and Eabani in their wanderings reach the place we are told: 

They stand considering the forest, 

Gazing on the height of the cedars, 

Gazing on the entrance of the forest, 

Where Humbaba is wont to wander about with great strides; 
The ways are laid out, the paths are well made; 

They gaze on the hill of cedars, the dwelling-place of the gods, the sanctuary of Irnini. 
In front of the hill a cedar rises in grandeur, 

Goodly is its shade, full of gladness... .. 

It produces samtu-stones as fruit; 

Its boughs hang with them, glorious to behold; 

The crown of it produces lapis lazuli; 

Its fruit is costly to gaze upon. 


But these trees are not clearly connected with the Assyrian sacred tree. Indeed, 
trees could not but enter into the mythical imagination of any people. ‘They must 
have some Yegdrasil, or Tuba tree, and it will take many forms. There was a tree 
in Elam the fruits of which produced easy birth for women, as we have seen in 
Chapter xxi, on “Etana and the Eagle,” and it was natural that the fruit of a 
tree should be health-giving, or life-giving. The desire of man is for long life. 
“O King, live forever,” was the address to Nebuchadnezzar. But this longing was 
always thwarted. When Gilgamesh had gone on a long quest for the plant of life 
and had just seized it, it was snatched out of his hand by a serpent. A midrash 
has the similar story of a man who saw a dead bird on which a second bird laid 
a branch, when the dead bird came to life. The man picked up the branch and 
soon came by a dead fox. He laid the branch on it and it immediately came to 
life again. ‘he man then thought he would apply the branch to the corpses of 
Israel, but as he passed along he saw a dead lion, on which he laid the branch, 
when it also revived and ate him up, illustrating the fact that immortality is not 
for man. 

While the references in the inscriptions to the tree of life are not very definite, 
whether we search both the Babylonian or the Assyrian texts, we may find some 
further suggestions in the Babylonian art, which may have relation to the Assyrian 
tree of life. The most important is shown in fig. 419. Here the archaic bas-relief 
gives a seated goddess in front view, before whom there is a plant in a vase, which a 
nude attendant is watering froma pitcher. From each side of the spreading plant 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. 235 


falls a bunch of fruit. This may be regarded as a libation, but the plant must have 
a sacred character. We have much the same scene from a somewhat later period in 
figs. 1235, 1240, where it seems impossible to regard this as the flame of oil on an 
altar, as the plant is so fully drawn like the frond of a palm, with fruit like a bunch 
of dates in one case hanging below it, and in the other real fronds. And these three 
bas-reliefs compel me to question my earlier view and ask if such scenes as in figs. 
31, 32, 421 may not represent a plant of life rather than libations of oil rising 
in flame and falling down on the side of the altar. We have here, then, the artistic 
anticipation of the tree of life so fully developed in Assyrian art, just as the Assyrian 
artists developed the scene of the conflict of Marduk and the Dragon. 

Indefinite and uncertain as these literary references are, and while the early 
Babylonian art leaves much to desire as to their ideas of the tree of life, we seem to 
find it, or a later development of it, in the Iranian literature. For a reference to 
these passages I am indebted to Prof. A. V. W. Jackson of Columbia University. 

The Gaokena is thus described by Justi in his “‘ Handbuch der Zendsprache”: 


A plant of the white haoma. It grows by the tree Harvicptokhma, in the sea Voumkasha, and 
is employed for the forming of immortal bodies at the time of the Resurrection. Ahriman created for its 
destruction a great lizard, but it could not reach its root, inasmuch as 99,999 fravashis [guardian angels] 
and the fish dara (or ten fishes, in the Bundehesh) kept it away. 


’ 


These two trees are also treated by Windischmann, “Zoroastrische Studien,’ 
pp. 165, ff.: “Paradies: die zwei Baume; die vier F'liisse.”’ 

It is instructive to gather here the passages which describe these two trees, 
for their relation both to the Assyrian tree of life and to the two trees of the Genesis 
story of Eden. 

They are as follows: 


The tree of the eagle [the griffin Saena, or Simurgh] that stands in the middle of the sea Vouru- 
kasha, that is called the tree of good remedies, the tree of powerful remedies, the tree of all remedies, and 
on which rest the seeds of all plants. (‘«* Sacred Books of the East,’’ mm, tr. Darmestetter, Avesta, Yasht 
Xi, a1 70) 

ihe waters@ a, a. run back again from the Puitika to the sea Vouru-kasha towards the well- 
watered tree, whereon grow the seeds of my plants of every kind by hundreds, by thousands, by hun- 
dreds of thousands. (/4., Vend-fargard v, 19.) 

From that same germ of plants the tree of all germs [or all seeds] was given forth, and grew up in 
the wide-formed ocean, from which the germs of all species of plants increased. And near to that tree of 
all germs the Gokart tree was produced, for keeping away deformed decrepitude, and the full perfection of 
the world arose therefrom. (J4., Bundahesh Lx, 5,6; tr. West.) 

I Ahura-mazda brought down the healing plants that by many hundreds, by many thousands, by 
many myriads, grow up all around the one Gaokerena [the white haoma, which grows up in the midst of 
the sea Vouru-kasha. The other is the yellow earthly haoma]. (J4., Fargard xx, 4; tr. Darmestetter). 

We worship the powerful Gaokerena made by Mazda. (Yasht 1, 30.) 

On the nature of the tree they call Gokart it says in revelation, that it was the first day when the 
tree they call Gokart grew up in the deep mud within the wide-formed ocean; and it is necessary, for 
they prepare its immortality therefrom. The evil spirit has formed therein, among those that enter as 
opponents, a lizard as an opponent in that deep water, so that it may-injure the Hom. And for keeping 
away that lizard Ahura-mazda has created those ten kar-fish, which at all times continually circle around 
the Hom, so that the head of one of the fish is continually towards the lizard. And together with the 
lizard those fish are spiritually fed, that is, no food is necessary for them, and till the renovation of the 
universe they remain in contention. .... The tree of many seeds has grown amid the wide-formed 
ocean, and in its seed are all plants; some say it is the proper-curing, some the energetic-curing, some the 
all-curing. (J4., Bundahesh xvi, 19; tr. West.) 


236 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


On the nature of plants it says in revelation. .... Ten thousand species among the species of 
principal plants, and a hundred thousand species among ordinary plants have grown from all these seeds of 
the tree opposed to harm, the many-sided, which has grown in the wide-formed ocean. When the seeds 
of all these plants, with those from the primeval ox, have arisen upon it, every year the bird strips the tree 
and mingles all the seeds in the water. Tishtar [star, probably Sirius] seizes them with the rainwater and 
rains them on to all regions. Near to that tree the white Hom, healing and wonderful, has grown at the 
source of the water Aridviosar [Anaitis]; every one who eats it becomes immortal, and they call it the 
Gokart tree, as it is said that Hom is expelling death. Also in the renovation of the universe they prepare 
its immortality therefrom ; and it is the chief of plants. (J4., Vendidad, xxvi, 1; tr. West.) 

And in its vicinity the tree was produced which is the white Hom [Gaokerena, or Gokart tree] 
the counteracter of decrepitude, the reviver of the dead, and the immortalizer of the living. (Jd., Zat- 
sparam, Appendix to Bundehesh, vir, 5; tr. West. ) 


From the Pahlavi literature we also have the following paragraph: 


The Hom, which is the preparer of the dead, is grown in the sea Varkash, in that which is the 
deepest place, and 99,999 guardian spirits of the righteous are appointed as its protection. The kar 
fish, too, ever circles around it, and always keeps the frog [lizard] and other noxious creatures away 
from it. 

The nest of the griffin bird [simurgh] is on the tree opposed to harm, the tree of all seeds, the 
white Hom, or Gokart tree of immortality. Whenever he rises aloft, a thousand twigs will shoot out from 
that tree ; and when he alights he breaks off the thousand twigs, and bites the seed from them. And the 
bird Cinamros alights likewise in the vicinity: and his work is this, that he collects those seeds that are 
bitten from the tree of many seeds which is opposed to harm, and he scatters them there where 'Tishtar 
[the star Sirius] seizes the water. So that while Tishtar shall seize the water, together with those seeds 
of all kinds, he shall rain them on the world with the rain. (Mainog-i-khirat, tr. West, «* Sacred Books 
OL the: Hast” 2 xxiv espseille) 


West adds the note: 


Originally the angel Amerodad (7. ¢., Immortality) is said to have mingled the plants with the 
rain, but afterwards this was done by the mythic bird. This legend was evidently intended to account 
for the rapid appearance of wild plants after rain in dry climates, when all traces of vegetation often disap- 
pear after the summer droughts. 


This tree, the Gaokerena, or the Gokart tree, tree of immortality, has a genetic 
relation with the tree of life of the Assyrian monuments. Like that, it is a mythic 
tree. It is covered with fruits. It is protected by guardian spirits and also by fish. 
Indeed, in the Avestan myth there are two trees, as in the Genesis story: one the 
tree of life, of immortality, and the other the tree of all seeds. ‘They both grew 
together, the first production of the waters, created by Ahura-mazda in the deepest 
part of the ocean or the sea Vouru-kash. One is the tree of life, of immortality, 
the Gaokerena, the Hom, from which is made the white haoma, Vedic soma, which 
in the resurrection will give immortality to the bodies of the dead. Ahriman tried 
to destroy it and for this purpose created a great lizard (or frog) which ever tries 
to get at its root. But Ahura-mazda created ten kar-fishes, which constantly circle 
about it so that their heads are always facing the lizard. Also 99,999 fravashis, 
righteous spirits, guard the tree. 

Near this tree is also the tree of all seeds, whose branches produce seeds of 
all sorts. On it sits the griffin, the great Simurgh bird, which strips the branches 
of the tree; and then another bird, the Camros, comes and gathers these seeds, 
dropped from the branches, and carries them to the sky where Tishtar pours out 
the rain. They mingle with the rain and fall on the earth and produce vegetation. 


ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. MAN 


Doubtless, as in all cases where a myth originating in one religion passes into 
the sphere of another, the Assyrian sacred tree was much changed in entering the 
Zoroastrian realm. We have a multitude of such cases in the Greek religion. 
Hercules is like, and yet much unlike, Gilgamesh. In this later Persian story, 
growing up on the very ground where the Assyrian sacred tree flourished, with 
which the Persians were perfectly familiar, there had come to be two trees. We have 
no evidence of two differentiated trees in the Assyrian art, and it is not unlikely 
that in the Persian mythology there was originally but a single tree, whose func- 
tions, of immortality and productiveness, came to be separated. it is a tree of life, 
and a plant of life is not unknown in Babylonian literature from an early period. 
From it is made the white haoma. It is not impossible that such a brewage was in 
the mind of the Assyrian artists, and that the pail carried by the attendant figure 
was meant to suggest a similar elixir of life to be carried in it. We may also suppose 
it to be intended to carry the fruit plucked off by the attendants. While sometimes 
plaited, it is, as has been already mentioned, a pail rather than a basket, as often 
the design of it implies that it is of metal. 


es 
Sa 
ZEB 





The protecting spirits of the Avestan story seem to be directly taken from the 
Assyrian prototype. ‘Phey are both fravashis and kar-fish, and we have both of these 
on the seals. Sometimes the genii are simply winged human figures or winged 
composite figures of various sorts. But the fish form is especially frequent and 
difficult to explain. We can, of course, connect it indefinitely with Nina, a fish- 
goddess, or with Nineveh, as a fish-city, although the design is older, probably, 
than the preéminence of Nineveh: but the relation is not at all clear. All we can 
say is that in some way the idea of a protecting fish-spirit was accepted, and under 
two forms. Sometimes it was a human figure swathed in the skin of a fish, as in 
figs. 678, 687-689, and sometimes it was a human figure ending in a fish’s body, as in 
fig. 690. It is quite likely that this protecting fish-like figure, whatever its meaning, 
was developed into the kar-fish of the Zoroastrian story. We see the lizard seldom 
on the Babylonian or Assyrian cylinders, but the frog is more common. On one 
cylinder there are two symmetric lizards under the tree. We may add fg. 710, 
where a monstrous serpent seems to come out from the tree, while behind are a seated 
goddess and a bull. ‘The inscription may be sophisticated. 

The tree of all fruits has a special Avestan development, with its two birds. 
May we not suppose that the winged disk, often developed into a human figure of 
Ashur with wings, was the origin of the Simurgh bird on the tree of all fruits? But 
if this seems too venturesome, at least we must remember that the griffin—and the 
Simurgh was sometimes a grifin—is to be found by the tree of life, as in figs. 697, 
700. It is perhaps a mere chance that in fig. 7o1 there is a bird, duplicated for 
symmetry, on the top of the tree. In fig. 711 we have a single bird over the sacred 
tree, flanked on one side by a sphinx and on the other by a griffin, while lower 


238 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


down are two ibexes. The main portion of this fine cylinder is occupied by a short- 
skirted profile hero, who grasps a lion by the paw on each side. The lions stand 
each on a prostrate bull, and above are the widely extended wings of Ashur and 
two eagles swooping down to prey upon the expected carcasses. Perhaps even 
more suggestive of the Simurgh is fig. 712, from a cylinder which I am assured was 
found in the Hauran. Here at the foot of the tree, on each side, is a griffin, while 
above are two symmetric birds, and both griffins and birds seem to be trying to get 
the fruit. ‘There are also two symmetric human figures, one each side of a vertical 





euilloche. ‘There is a bird on one side of the tree, near the top, in fig. 713, an 
unusually fine cylinder, which shows us a winged god standing on two winged 
animals and holding two ibexes by the hind legs. ‘The inscription is a dedication 
to Marduk. We also have two birds on the same side of a palm-shaped tree in 
fig. 714, one above and one below. On each side of the tree is a winged figure, and 
the winged disk is above. ‘This cylinder came from Assyria and is rather early. 
See also fig. 541, which shows the Kassite influence, even if it be of a later period. 
We have the monkey on the top of the tree in fig. 571 and also in fig. 715. 

The comparison of the Assyrian sacred tree with the two sacred trees of the 
later Zoroastrian religion seems to show such an evident relation between them as 
one might have expected; and it gives no support to the notion that the design is 
to represent the fertilization of the palm. Nothing of the kind is to be found in 
the Persian story, while the protecting spirits and the use of the fruit are essential 
to it. 












Mba 


gee fd SS 








CHAPTER XXxIX. 


SEATED ASSYRIAN DEITIES. 


The cylinders to be considered in this chapter comprise some others besides 
those which represent a seated deity; nor is there in all cases a stand, table, or altar 
before the deity, and the deity may be either male or female, although more usually 
the latter. They form a class of their own, which, however, runs into that con- 
sidered in the succeeding chapter. It is probable that they are not of pure Assyrian 
origin; or, if so, they come mostly from an early period when the worship was more 
completely that of such neighboring regions as Nairi or Mitani. The cylinders are 
usually large, the length from two to three times the diameter, very frequently of 
soft serpentine. It is seldom that any inscription is found upon them. The large 
serpentine cylinders seem to form a class by themselves, which represents a rude art 
which is not skilled in cutting the harder stones and is not very familiar with writ- 
ing. In one case (fig. 793), as will be seen in our study of the Hittite cylinders, they 





fe yr 
MMs S 


a Oe 














ST THKywyrs 

KY AW LY 
0 ~ 
YY 






bear a Hittite inscription. The soft blackish-green serpentine is of a texture much 
inferior to the harder black or green serpentine which was affected by the early 
Babylonians, but which went nearly or quite out of use from the time of Gudea. 
We may perhaps conjecture that these Assyrian cylinders were in use as early as 
from 2000 to 1000 B.C. Three such are shown in fig. 1 on a stopper to a jar, 
made of bitumen. 

In fig. 716 it will be noticed also that the sign for god 1s not the later Assyrian, 
but is the older Babylonian star of four wedges. As connected with the other sign 
it may represent the god Sin. Equally old, for Assyrian, may we consider the 
border, a succession of angles sometimes of this shape and sometimes with chev- 
rons, as in fig. 723. Similar is the border ornament shown in Petrie’s “ Researches 
in Sinai,” plate 147. The god wears a curious, square, perhaps feathered, head- 
dress, and lifts a cup from the offerings presented to him. ‘These are all drink- 
offerings. On a stand are three slender vases, and two other single vases are on 
stands, one above and the other beside the principal stand. ‘The worshiper, who 

239 


240 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


may be supposed to have provided the god with his accepted offering, waves a fan 
to keep away the flies. We shall see a number of cases of such a fan, and they are 
still in common use in the East, a square flap of woven strands of grass or fiber, 
one edge of which is attached to the side of the wooden handle. ‘The large triangular 
summit of a column between the god and the stand may probably represent Marduk. 

It is a bearded god that sits before a stand in fig. 718 and holds a cup to his 
mouth. Here we find the characteristic high chair with a square back. No such 
chair is to be seen in all the previous Babylonian art. ‘There the seat of the gods 
is usually a square stool with no back; or occasionally a very low back is seen, 
curved outward in a graceful fashion. We shall see the back of the chair orna- 
mented with stars, or balls, when occupied by a goddess. ‘The worshiper stands 
behind the god, attending him with a fan, while the same or another worshiper 
protects the table with a whisk. On the table, with its ox-feet, is food, perhaps a 
flat loaf of bread. In the field above are the star of Ishtar, an ashera of Marduk, 
the crescent of Sin, the disk of Ashur, which here shows the sun’s disk, so that here 
the symbol may, as it sometimes does, represent Shamash. We have also the atten- 
dant god, or protecting spirit, with a fish-skin over his body and holding a basket; 






RY __ V 





= 
Xx 












or 





















/. i, 
SSS 
Leif Awe 


720 


= ss WL 
EOIN 





also the seven dots, probably of the Igigi. ‘There is absolutely nothing to indicate 
who this bearded god is. While in some points (as in the god arising from the solar 
disk, although this is unusual) the art seems to be purely Assyrian, in other respects 
it seems foreign. Such is the braided hair forming a short queue behind the god’s 
head, if it be not rather a tassel hanging from his helmet, with its triple-pointed top. 

Perhaps we may include here the peculiar jade cylinder shown in fig. 719. 
The seated god carries a sort of branch. He is flounced, and a long lock hangs 
down his back. Before him a worshiper offers a goat in the Babylonian style. 
The cross-lines on his garment suggest a foreign style. “Then we have the god Adad 
on a bull, and before him a god who appears to be Marduk. Each god holds behind 
him the curved scimitar of Marduk, and each has his hand on a single Egyptian 
symbol of stability. Equally there is no indication who is the bearded god in fig. 
720, where a worshiper stands before the seated god and an attendant stands behind. 
This cylinder is peculiar in that the inscription is arranged so as to inclose the 
design on all sides. 

Another more peculiar case of such a seated and bearded god is shown in fig. 
721. This would seem to be Adad, if we may give him the Assyrian or Syrian name, 
but perhaps equally the Hittite Teshub, for he carries the triple thunderbolt. Before 
him is a stand, or altar, or brazier, with flame, and beyond it, with a little table 
in front of him and the crescent above him, stands a worshiper with hand lifted 


SEATED ASSYRIAN DEITIES. 241 


in worship. What the god holds in his other hand is not clear, possibly two axes; 
and neither is it clear what protrudes in front of him. It looks like the extension of 
his chair into a lounge or bed. The whole style of the seal is barbarous, the beard 
of the god, the Phrygian caps, and the fire- 
altar. It may possibly be that this is very 
late Parthian, or Sassanian, for the ruder the 
style the less possible it is to fix a date—but 
the thunderbolt seems to fix its period as 
Assyrian. A better-drawn cylinder, but of 
a similar type, we seem to have in fig. 722. 
The altar is more accurately drawn, and we 
see the bearded god, the worshiper with the 
emblem of Belit on his wrist, and a stand 722 

with two vases. A cylinder of special interest is that in fig. 669. It is in two 
registers, and so rich is its design that it may as well be classed elsewhere. In the 
upper register the bearded god, holding a bow, stands before a frame on which are 
not less than three amphoras. The winged disk is over a sacred tree, and on each 
side of the tree a standing figure grasps the streamer that falls from each side of the 
winged disk. As is so often the case in other cylinders, there is a small slender tree. 
In the lower register a lion attacks a cow attended by her calf, and there are a 
worshiper, a second animal, a star, a crescent, seven dots, and the ashera of Marduk. 





aie G 


(9 





125 





Another of those serpentine cylinders which appear to go back to an early 
Assyrian period is shown in fig. 723. Here are two standing figures, one a bearded 
deity, with a club, and the other a worshiper. Between them is a high stand on 
which rests an amphora, over which the worshiper waves his fan. Behind the god 
are two small trees and a star. The club or a weapon would seem to suggest a 
very early period, as such clubs are hardly seen in Babylonian art after 2500 B. C. 
Almost precisely similar is fig. 724, except that the god is seated in a chair and that 
there is but one small tree. Another male deity appears seated in fig. 725, where 
with him are simply a standing worshiper and a palm-tree. 

16 


242 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


The cylinders thus far illustrated have for the most part been cut with the 
free hand and not with the wheel. One of them, fig. 718, was in part cut with the 
wheel; it was probably later and was of chalcedony and not of the softer serpen- 
tine. In fig. 726 there is seen a chalcedony cylinder chiefly cut with the wheel 
and probably belonging to a late Assyrian period. We find the stand represented 
with its four crossed legs and covered with a cloth. On it are a low crater and two 
flat loaves of bread, while above them is a fish. The chair occupied by the bearded 
god shows the legs reinforced by cross-sticks, and the back is ornamented with 
knobs attached, which in some other examples become stars. Behind the seated 
god we see a goddess with four peculiar, curved rays ending in stars, whom we 
shall consider in a succeeding chapter. The worshiper stands before the god whose 
table he has loaded, and in the field are a crescent, the seven dots, and an ibex. 
It will also be noticed that we have the design framed in narrow lines at the top 





k 





if 
| Mm) AIM Un 


mn 
A py OO 


KKK 
\ 


JZ) 3 he 











i 



















i) 
i] 
I 


M1 








729 730 

and bottom of the cylinder, a fashion comparatively late. Here, again, we have 
a single emblem to indicate who the god is. While one hand is lifted in favor to 
the worshiper, the other holds the triple thunderbolt, for so we must regard it, 
for it can not be thought a star. Wecan then connect it with Adad, or Ramman, 
god of storms, and a chief god of the neighboring people, under his various names. 

In cases thus far considered it is a bearded deity that has been observed. 
Such is the case with the five following cylinders, in which the god is standing 
(figs. 727, 728, 729, 730, 731). These are of soft serpentine and of the style which 
I have regarded as early, that is, well before tooo B. C., and are of course hand- 
engraved. In two cases there is a border line of chevrons, in another a border of 
oblique lines, and in two cases a broad border without the chevrons. In two cases 
a worshiper stands with a fan before a stand on which is an amphora. On the other 
side is the bearded god with his bow and there are one or more small trees, which 
may represent that the worship is paid in a grove. In both there is a crescent 
and in one alsoa star. In fig. 730, a similar one, we have the chevrons, but the wor- 


SEATED ASSYRIAN DEITIES. 243 


shiper does not hold a fan above the stand. But we notice behind him, next to the 
small tree, the Egyptian emblem of the scepter, which would suggest that the cylinder 
is not earlier than 1500 B.C. Such an Egyptian emblem is unusual and unexpected. 

But in the large majority of cases the deity represented on these seals is beard- 
less and presumably a goddess. Especially is this true of the later cylinders with 
the seated deity. An extreme illustration, which seems to show Hittite influence, 
appears in fig. 732. Although more probably Hittite, or Mitannian, or otherwise 
foreign, rather than Assyrian, it is given here as showing the probable foreign source 
of the type. It is a fair question whether the seated deity, closely clothed, is male 
or female, although the probabilities favor the goddess. None of the figures is 
bearded, not even the small one shooting an ibex. The goddess, if we may call 









‘733 

her so, wears a sort of helmet and holds in one hand a club. With the other hand 
she holds a reed through which she drinks from the vase on a stand before her. 
A female attendant, with garment drawn aside to expose her nudity, after a style 
we shall observe on the Hittite seals, holds in one hand a fan and in the other a 
slender vase. A worshiper leads an animal as victim; another, on his knee, 
shoots at an ibex. Below them a griffin attacks an ibex. In the field are the sun 
in the crescent, a star, and three rosettes. We observe the border lines. “The whole 
design, though much freer in composition than is usual on Hittite seals, as well as 
larger, yet shows abundant Hittite influence, not only in the nudity of the attend- 
ant, but in the two registers of half the seal and the appearance of the griffin. 
The representation of the deity as drinking is what we have found to be not infre- 
quent in the most archaic Babylonian cylinders, and we shall again find it here in 
those from the Assyrian region. 


244 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Another very much finer cylinder is shown in fig. 733. Here the goddess, in 
her chair, holds in one hand her club, or scepter, while the other hand reaches out 
to touch the head of an antlered deer laid on a table, or altar, before her. The 
worshiper presents the offering by resting one hand on the deer’s antler, and behind 
him another worshiper, or the same one repeated, holds in his hand the head of 
an animal, perhaps a horse. It may be that in both cases the head represents the 
entire animal. In the field are the winged disk and the crescent, a lion, a monkey, a 
dog, two birds, and another uncertain object. The disk of the sun, it will be observed, 
is drawn with the eight rays of Venus, instead of with his own alternate streams, 
showing the confusion and degradation of the symbolism often noticed as it leaves 
its original home. 

Another case in which the goddess is drinking from a vase before her is shown 
in fig. 734. This cylinder is of the soft, northern serpentine, but its shape—rather 
short for its diameter—and some elements in the composition suggest quite an early 
Babylonian influence, as well as the influence from the north. The goddess wears 
the flounced garment and drinks through a reed from the vase before her. Near 
her are the vase, in an old form, and the “libra,” which belong together in the older 
art. A worshiper presents a vase. Behind him, on a high platform and under a 
canopy, is a bull, probably brought for sacrifice. In the field are a small sun and a 
shallow crescent, a star, and apparently six instead of the proper seven dots that 
represent the Igigi. The latter are never found in the old Babylonian art, and there 
can be no question that this cylinder is northern, although quite early. 

Another very interesting early cylinder is shown in fig. 735. This gives us a 
seated deity, apparently beardless, before an elaborate altar, or table, on which 
rests a swan. Behind the altar stands the worshiper and above the god are the 
seven dots. A somewhat similar cylinder is shown in fig. 736, also of the soft ser- 
pentine and early. The border at the top and bottom has a series of diagonal lines 
in place of the chevrons. There is the seated goddess, with the worshiper, and over 
the table is a fish in place of the swan in the last seal. Not so early is fig. 737, where 
the goddess, with a ring in her hand, sits before a stand with a fish under the winged 
disk, while a worshiper stands opposite her, and behind the goddess are a crescent, 
a rhomb, and an antelope. Another of this general type we see in fig. 738, where the 
goddess drinks from a vase on a low stand and a worshiper is seen before a high 
stand which may be an altar of unusual shape. Perhaps we may include here such 
a cylinder as fig. 739, where the goddess holds a branch, and we see a worshiper, 
the naked goddess, and probably Shamash and a worshiper, besides rude animals. 

There can be no doubt that the deity represented in fig. 740 is female, for she 
holds the distaff. Behind her a female servant waves a fan and before her a beard- 
less worshiper presents two fishes. 

A good example of the more usual kind is given in fig. 741. The deity, unques- 
tionably a goddess, sits on a high chair with a footstool. Before her is a table with 
crossed legs, covered with a cloth, on which is nothing but a single cup. Behind 
her a bearded, male attendant actually holds a fringed towel or napkin in one hand 
and in the other a fan. Before the table a female attendant swings a whisk. In the 
field are the winged disk, a crescent, a star, and a slender wedge. 

In the later cylinders of this type, those cut with the wheel, it is very common 
to see a series of four dots, or stars, arranged as ornaments behind the back of the 


SEATED ASSYRIAN DEITIES. 245 


goddess’s chair. We see an example in fig. 742. In this case perhaps a duck 
and a pile of loaves, like showbread, are on the table, under the winged disk. 
There is also the usual worshiper; besides the star and the seven dots there is the 









TT 
Aiinirw 
ma 
MTL 7 
TN 
{A | 





column with a conical top and streamers, which probably represents Marduk. 
In fig. 743, between the goddess and the worshiper, are the two asheras of Marduk 
and Nebo, and above them the star of Ishtar and the crescent of Sin. In fig. 744 
we have the same asheras, also the winged disk, the crescent, the seven dots and 
the rhomb. In this case the four dots behind the goddess’s chair become full stars, 
which indicates very likely the meaning of the seven dots, which may stand for 





seven stars. Another case in which the stars are represented is seen in fig. 745. 
This shows an unusual altar with flame. The goddess holds in her hand a ring, 
such as is not infrequent. We see it in fig. 746. 

An interesting and instructive example is shown in fig. 747. Here the goddess 
and her chair rest on a dog, as in the Babylonian examples with Bau-Gula. This 
is no small evidence that the seated goddess from the north was identified at times 


246 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


with Gula, even if, as I believe, more completely with Belit. Her chair has the 
stars and before her is the worshiper under the winged disk. We have also the 
god standing onthe bull, the column of Marduk, the crescent, the star and the 
rhomb, and also a character with a wedge over four vertical wedges. The seated god- 
dess on a dog is very rare; but we have in fig. 747a one such case from a cone seal. 

Occasionally we meet with a cylinder, as in fig. 748, in which the deity sits on 
a seat with no back, after the Babylonian style. But here we have both deities, 
the god and the goddess, each with a cup in the hand, and before them a stand 
with a fish. 

We have an interesting example in fig. 750, in which the seated goddess seems 
confused with the standing Ishtar. She sits opposite Adad, who carries his ax 
and stands on a bull, while she sits over a lion. The needle-like points above the 
headdress of each deity are to be observed. They seem to anticipate the later 
Persian crown, and, indeed, this cylinder was obtained from Urumia. It is of a 
handsome chalcedony, the upper part reddish, and shows the oxidation of the 
copper cap on one end and the wire which passed through the hole. 

In the study of these cylinders we have found two cases in which the bearded 
god carried the thunderbolt of Adad, who corresponds to the Hittite Teshub. It 





would then be probable that in these two cases this was the god represented. In 
another case the god carried the ax, or hammer; and in other cases a club or a bow. 
We can not at all assume that the same bearded god is represented in all these cases, 
and yet we have little in the way of a clue for a further identification. There is 
absolutely nothing in the way of any emblem or attribute to aid in the identification 
of the goddess. One would naturally ally her to the Babylonian seated goddess 
Bau-Gula, but very likely under a different name, certainly so if she has been intro- 
duced from the temple of one of the neighboring nations. ‘The four stars which 
ornament the back of her chair, and sometimes a fifth at the top of its back, would 
seem to ally her with Ishtar. But apart from the fact that pretty much any goddess 
may be confused with Ishtar and identified with the planet Venus, we have, as we 
shall see in another chapter, another goddess, represented as standing, profusely 
ornamented with stars, who must be regarded as Ishtar, like the standing Baby- 
lonian Ishtar. To be sure, we know that the Assyrians worshiped two different 
Ishtars, one the Ishtar of Nineveh and the other the Ishtar of Arbela, and we have 
little knowledge how the two were differentiated in art. It may be that one was a 
standing and the other a sitting goddess. Indeed this need not at all surprise us. 

That there were two goddesses especially honored in these northern regions 
we know from the bas-relief of Maltaya (fig. 749). Here, on one of the rows of 
figures sculptured on the rock, we see a procession of seven gods, each standing 
on his characteristic animal, while the king is twice represented in the attitude of 


SEATED ASSYRIAN DEITIES. DAT 


worship, once before and once behind the seven deities. Of the seven, two are 
goddesses: the second, seated in a high-backed chair, and the seventh, who stands 
on a lion. The first two, the god and the goddess, seem distinguished from the 
others by the fact that their square hats are ornamented with a knob at the top and 
not a star, such as the other five hats carry. We may assume that these are the two 
principal deities, apparently the chief god and his consort. The first would seem 
to be related to Marduk, judging from the animal 

on which he stands, with its lifted tail. The chair oe way, TG 
of the second rests on a lion. It will be remembered YM Q BY 
that the animal connected with the seat of Bau-Gula g 
on the kudurrus is a dog. Here the chair of the S€Pe ES m 
goddess is ornamented with stars behind, with two Bato | Ds 4 7 re | 


Ea) 
e ION d 
WAS Ne 








scorpion-men and with other supporting, composite @ UY i iim same) 
figures, such as we see in various compositions, as in _'// Yj{ =e ae 
the Hittite procession of Boghaz-keui. Their mean- ae 


ing we do not know, but they seem to be upholding the sky. Of the other deities 
the sixth is designated by the thunderbolt in his hand as Adad-Ramman, while the 
seventh appears to be Ishtar on her lion. 

It is seductive to consider these as representing the Sun and Moon, with the 
five planets, the latter designated by the stars on their hats, and so they have been 
treated by Puchstein (“ Pseudohethitische Kunst,” p. 17); but it is not easy to see 
the moon in the second deity, as we know that Sin was not a goddess, and no cres- 
cent is attached; and equally the first is indicated by his animal to be Marduk, 
who is the planet Jupiter. With the figure of the seated goddess are to be compared 
the gods carried on the shoulders of soldiers in Layard’s “ Monuments of Nineveh,”’ 
1, plate 65, perhaps captured gods, possibly carried in a religious procession. But 
the fact that of the four deities three are goddesses, two of them alike, makes it 
probable that we have here the spoil of conquered temples. One is Adad, holding 
both his thunderbolt and an ax. Another is a goddess standing in a chair, which 1s 
inclosed like a square bath-chair. The two others are seated, one with face in 
front-view, the other in profile. 

We shall probably be not far from right if we connect these various forms of 
the seated goddess with the great Goddess Mother, Ma, Cybele, under her various 
names, whose worship prevailed in Asia Minor and the East. But this northern 
goddess was equally identified with the Babylonian Belit and also with Gula. 
Gula was properly a seated deity, and so naturally identified with the seated god- 
dess of the north. But also she was Belit, or Ninkharshag, for in Assyria Bel and 
Belit came to be, as Dr. Jastrow has shown, mere general terms, and she was the 
Lady par excellence, the Belit, the wife of Ashur, or of Bel Marduk, whichever was 
thought of as the chief god. But Jastrow seems to be wrong in thinking that she 
is to be confounded with Ishtar. Such would naturally be thought to be the fact 
if we were making comparisons only with Babylonian gods; but we have here an 
entirely different element to deal with, a goddess from the north and west, a really 
new goddess, for whom the priest theologians had to make a place in the Babylonian 
pantheon; and so they called her Belit, wife sometimes of Bel, sometimes of Adad, 
and sometimes of Ashur. 


CHAPTER XL. 


ADAD AND ISHTAR. 


There is hardly a more beautiful and elaborate Assyrian cylinder than one in 
the British Museum which represents the armed Ishtar, fig. 751. Of the identity 
of this armed goddess there can be no doubt. Whether the Ishtar of Nineveh 
differed from the Ishtar of Arbela we do not know, but either one was the great 
goddess of battles, who directed the king by dreams and protected him in war. 
She stands on the lion of the Babylonian Ishtar (figs. 414-417) and carries the bow 
and arrows, a scimitar, and a quiver on each shoulder. Her square headdress, 
such as is usually worn by a Hittite goddess, is surmounted by a star. There is 
a star at the upper and lower end of each quiver and one below the scimitar. Her 
garment is richly embroidered and fringed and one leg is advanced. The animal 
on which she stands is rather a lioness than a lion. A female worshiper, wearing 
a similar garment and with a javelin in her belt, stands before her. Behind the 
goddess is a palm-tree, and next to it are two rampant ibexes crossed. Above is 
an emblem which we may take to be an unusual combination of the sun and 
crescent, but only three of the sun’s four crossing lines can be given. This repre- 
sentation of Ishtar will guide us in less elaborate and more careless cases. 


v = awl - 353 
AN Ray DMN AES 
\N N! PAL NNT eee, 
a, Damas Se é rs qi 
NF WPL Ae 
HR 


INN 
LP 


fi 
2 





We recognize the same goddess in a somewhat variant form in fig. 752, a 
cylinder remarkable for its profuse symbols of gods. Ishtar now stands, as is much 
more unusual, on a platform; and her body is surrounded by a circle of dots, 
from which radiate angles ending in stars. It is possible that the circle suggests 
a shield and the radiating angles are the development of her quivers. She has the 
square hat surmounted by her star. Before her is a worshiper. There is a multi- 
tude of other emblems. Below are a fish, an uncertain object, possibly a vase, a 
crescent perhaps of Sin on an ashera, a rhomb, and the two asheras of Marduk and 
Nebo on their characteristic animal. Above are the thunderbolt of Adad, the 
crescent of Sin, the seven dots of the Igigi, the winged disk of Ashur, with the pecu- 
liar, human-headed monster that sometimes supports it, the star of Ishtar, the ram’s 
head of Ea, and an indeterminate column. In fig. 753 we have a single other inter- 
esting variation. Before the goddess is an altar, apparently, although rudely drawn, 
of the shape of which we have an existing specimen from the time of Sargon; on 

248 


ADAD AND ISHTAR. 249 


the altar is an offering, perhaps of cakes, and a flame above it. The worshiper 
stands behind the altar, and we have the ashera of Marduk, another uncertain 
object, the crescent, and the seven dots. In fig. 754 the stars, as often, become 
simple dots; there are two worshipers and emblems, the columns of Marduk and 
Nebo, the crescent, star, rhomb, and seven dots of the Igigi. 

In the examples thus far given we have but a single deity represented, and that 
a goddess. More usually the goddess is associated with a male deity. Usually he 
is adorned with rays about his body and stars, much like the goddess. But in fig. 
755 he is seated on a goat-fish, and we seem compelled to see in him Ea, whom we 
would not expect, or a similar deity, possibly Dagon. Before the god stands a 






rs 4 tb % LEX 


eG 
See psd 
Loh , 
Ve f ay 


A AMIN 
BSS 2 VS ey, 
dM [SFL YV 


757 
worshiper and a second stands in attendance behind him, showing that he was 
regarded as superior to Ishtar, who stands on an animal which may be a dog, as in 
fig. 747. Behind the goddess is an upright object like the back of a chair, with 
stars as ornaments. In the field are a crescent and eight dots. It is unquestion- 
ably the same god seated on a goat-fish that we see in fig. 757, although the cylinder 
is unfortunately broken. But it is clear that this god, apparently Ea, is distinguished 
from the god who, on the same cylinder, stands on a bull. There is a worshiper 
before the seated god, also the “libra”? and rhomb and probably other emblems 
lost with the upper part of the cylinder. This seems to be an excellent example of 
the presumably early, black serpentine, Assyrian seal. With it may be compared 
fig. 756, on which over the goat-fish is the divine seat, and over it a figure of a stand- 
ing god inclosed in a large circle. A worshiper is on each side, one a man and the 
other a woman, and above are the star and crescent. We notice, as usual, no disk 


250 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


of the sun apart from the circle about the god. In fig. 758 the god is standing on 
the goat-fish; before him is Ishtar and behind him a figure in a fish-skin. 

But more frequently the goddess stands on a dragon, if on any animal, while 
the god stands on a bull, but occasionally on a dragon like that of the goddess. 
Such a case is seen in fig. 759. Here the circle or shield is ornamented with many 
rays ending in stars, of which the two upper ones are larger and are triangular, 
representing the original quivers. The god has but two triangular rays, with stars, 
from his shoulders, but carries a scepter, or club, and perhaps a double ax. The 
monster on which he stands differs from the dragon of the goddess in that its tail 
is that of a scorpion rather than of a bird, and it carries the horn of the bull on 





n 


! 











5 SS 


e 
(Lo 
AN: 
— C2) t < 
Zi, 
kia N\t 
=> SS 
Ty" 


which the god usually stands. The worshiper stands before the god as if he were 
the superior deity. In the field are the winged disk, the star, and the seven dots. 
A similar cylinder is shown in fig. 760. The animals are the same as in the last 
case; but while the goddess is encircled with stars and has a star over her hat, 
the god has but the single star over his hat. Besides the seven dots there is a peculiar 
variation of the disk of Ashur. ‘The disk, made of dots, is repeated, but not 
complete, and so is crescent-shaped. Within each is the body of Ashur, and 
short lines radiate from the dots. The cylinder shown in fig. 761 may be quite 
late—certainly the inscription is very late. ‘The goddess leads a dog (or lion) 
and a worshiper faces her. ‘There is also an eagle-headed genius, with basket, 
before a sacred tree so reduced that it gives only the stem, with the fruit on one 
side only. 


ADAD AND ISHTAR. 201 


In fig. 762 we have a case of apparently foreign origin. A male and a female 
deity stand one on each side of a winged sphinx, above which is a winged bull. 
The god lifts in one hand a club, while his foot rests on the body of the sphinx. 
The goddess seizes the head of the sphinx with both hands. We have also the 
crescent and the star. he ample headdress of the goddess is peculiar and is tipped 
with a star, which the drawing fails to give. This cylinder illustrates the develop- 
ment of the two upper angles which represent the quivers and which are not here 
tipped with stars. On the Babylonian cylinders they are open, so that the ends of 
the arrows show; but here the quivers are in their covers or cases, which are all that 
usually appear in the Assyrian seals. One will recall the expression in Habakkuk 
3:9, “ Thy bow was quite uncovered”; and equally the quiver was protected. 

We have in fig. 763 the god without the goddess, and he holds in each hand 
the thunderbolts of Adad and stands upon a bull, or here a cow with a sucking calf. 
We have also the tree of life and the disk with its tassels, each of which is grasped 
by a worshiper. ‘There are the usual emblems, the crescent and the star (the sun, as 
often, replaced by the winged disk), the seven dots, a fish, a rhomb, a small tree, and 
a bull’s head. It 1s noticeable that in such cases the bull, with its short horns, may 
be, as in the earlier Babylonian seals, the Brson bonasus, sometimes the aurochs. 











In the excellent and unusually large cylinder shown in fig. 764 the god stands 
on his bull, but the goddess does not stand on her appropriate animal. This case 
is interesting because of the weapons represented. ‘There are no rays about the 
deities except the double-pointed quivers from their shoulders, each tipped not with 
a star but with a dot; but above the goddess is a large star which takes the place 
of the usual star accompanying the crescent, the winged disk with human bust of 
Ashur-Shamash and the seven dots, thus more definitely identifying the goddess 
with Ishtar. Her only other weapon is the peculiar and slender one which extends 
behind her back, as also behind the back of the god, which, with its two dots like 
a dumb-bell near the end, might be taken for a double ax, although it looks more 
like a curious sort of javelin. But the god carries in his hand a sharply drawn ax, 
which shows also the loop of cord by which it might be hung up or attached to the 
wrist. Instead of a star he has a knob, or dot, on the top of his helmet. A beardless 
worshiper stands before him, and before the goddess is the tree of life. 

Another case in which the god carries the ax is seen in fig. 767. He is orna- 
mented with stars, adored by a worshiper, and behind him, carrying a pail, is the 
composite attendant spirit which we see supporting the winged disk. We have 
also the ashera of Marduk, the crescent, star and seven dots, and four lines of 
inscription. The god carries the same ax in fig. 766 and the goddess carries her 
ring; we observe the ibex, the seven dots, the rhomb, crescent, and column. 

An attractive cylinder is shown in fig. 765, where both the god and the goddess 
are abundantly adorned with stars and quivers, while a worshiper stands before the 


252 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


god who holds a scepter. Behind him is the winged disk over the asheras of Marduk 
and Nebo. 

But the more usual weapon of this god is the thunderbolt, although the ax is 
also his. In fig. 768 he holds the thunderbolt; the bull is before him; there are no 
knobs or stars above his quivers; before him stands the worshiper, and behind 
him a female figure, with a branch, whom we may take to be his attendant goddess, 
although lacking all her stars and weapons. We have already observed that what- 
ever might be her dignity and glory, it was quite inferior to that of the god. Here 
she sinks into comparative insignificance, like the Shala who accompanies Adad- 
Ramman, or the Aa who accompanies Shamash on the Babylonian cylinders. 


y A SS 





But the remarkable thing about this cylinder is its Sabean inscription, read by 
Halévy “Belonging to Barik, son of ‘Ar‘a” (“Etudes Sabéennes,” pais2)— Lhe 
inscription is of the ordinary filiary type, but it indicates the general worship of 
the deities in foreign lands as well as in Assyria. 

In fig. 769 we have an interesting variation. ‘The god stands on his bull and 
the goddess holds her dragon by a cord. But we observe that the winged disk 
rests as a symbol and ornament on the hat of the god. This indicates him as the 
supreme god, like Ashur, or, more likely, like Shamash, for the winged disk, we 
know, may represent Shamash as well as Ashur. ‘The other emblems are the cres- 
cent, star, seven dots, rhomb, and a couchant ibex. 


a 





s\ 4 
H yl A\ 
LD 


Vii 





69 770 
In fig. 771 we bicere that the goddess is adorned with stars, but the god with 
knobs. In both the winged disk and the crescent there is the bust of the god. By 
the ashera of Marduk there is a wedge, which we may take to be the emblem of 
Nebo. There is also a small sacred tree with its ibex and human figure, the seven 
dots, a rhomb, and two lines of inscription. 
In fig. 770 the goddess stands on her dog with a back like that of a chair behind 
her, and before her a stand, a worshiper, and a crescent, while behind her are a 
star, two crosses, and two locusts, one each side of a shrub. ‘This is almost the only 
case known in which the locust appears on a cylinder. On bas-reliefs locusts are 
sometimes seen strung for food. 


ADAD AND ISHTAR. 253 


It was about the twelfth century B. C. that the new Assyrian writing came into 
vogue, the earlier forms being old Babylonian. We have observed the old form of 
the designation of a deity, Ilu, by a star, on certain of these purely Assyrian cylinders, 
showing that they are presumably older than that period (see fig. 716), and from 
this period their type continues down to the end of the Empire and even later. 

The earliest Assyrian texts give us the gods chiefly worshiped. ‘The earliest 
inscription is that of Shamshi-Adad (Shamshi-Ramman) whose name includes two 
gods, Shamash and Adad. It thus reads: ‘‘Shamshi-Adad, patesi of Ashur, son 
Igurkakkapu, builder of the temple of Ashur.”’ He was then worshiper of three 
gods at least, Ashur, the homonymous god of his city, Shamash, and Adad. This 
king, or, rather, patesi, or viceroy, in the city of Ashur (Kala’at Shergat), is sup- 
posed to have flourished about 2000 B. C. Another patesi of Ashur, Int. . ., ina 
very brief inscription, offers a dedication to Ashur his god. Pudi-ilu, who reigned 
at Ashur about 1350 B. C., introduces another deity in the dedication of a temple 
to Shamash. We have a larger pantheon recorded by Adad-nirari, about 1325 
B. C., whose name suggests the high dignity of Adad. He speaks of himself as 
the priest of Bel, of his father Pudi-ilu as governor and priest of Bel and Ashur, 
and declares that “Anu, Ashur, Shamash, Adad, and Ishtar’? have subdued the 
conquered lands under his feet. It will be observed that here Anu is put before 
Ashur; but this does not indicate anything more than the formal convention bor- 
rowed from Babylonia, which put Anu, though a half-forgotten god, at the head 
of the pantheon; for at the end of the inscription Ashur comes to his proper pre- 
cedence: ‘“ Ashur, the exalted god, who inhabits Ekharsag-kurkura, Anu, Bel, Ea, 
and Ishtar, the great gods, the Egigi of heaven, the Annunaki of Earth.” These 
gods are petitioned to curse any one who should profane his inscription; and then 
the king proceeds, after this general malediction, to call on Adad separately to 
destroy any such enemy with storm, flood, and famine. We should judge from 
this that, while Ashur was the special supreme and national localized deity, prob- 
ably a variant of Shamash, Adad was the active, working deity who could most 
bless and curse; and Ishtar is the only goddess mentioned, and named in con- 
nection with Adad, after Anu, Ashur, and Shamash. 

About 1275 B.C. lived Tiglath-Adar, whose name brings in another god 
Adar (written Ninib). An inscription of his contains the names of Ashur and 
Adad: “Whosoever destroys my writing and my name, may Ashur and Adad 
destroy his name and his land”! From an inscription of Ashurrishili (1150 B. C.) 
we get the names of Ashur, Nusku, also of the triad Anu, Bel, and Ea, and we are 
told that he fought under the protection of Adar (Ninib). In his long, historical 
inscription, Tiglathpileser, 1100 B. C., at the beginning of his great Prism Inscrip- 
tion, offers an invocation to the gods in the following order: “Ashur who rules the 
company of the gods; Sin the wise one, lord of the disk of the moon; Shamash, 
judge of heaven and earth; Adad, the warrior, who overthrows the country of the 
foes; Adar, the mighty one, who destroys the wicked; and Ishtar, the goddess of 
battle, who arrays the slaughter.”” Again and again in his record of his victories 
he accredits his success to the might of his national god Ashur; but he brings back 
his spoils of victory not to any temple of Ashur, but to the temples of Belit, the 
lofty consort of Ashur, of Anu, Adad, and Ishtar; and prisoners he sets free, with 
the oath of loyalty, in the presence of Shamash. He mentions Adar and Nergal 


254. SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


as helping him in hunting wild beasts. He built two temples, one of Ishtar “my 
mistress,” the other of Martu (same as Adad); he repaired temples of Anu and 
Adad; he repaired yet another sanctuary of Adad. He especially prides himself 
on his temples of Anu and Adad, and it 1s to these gods that he prays for male- 
dictions on any one who should destroy his memorial. We then gather from his 
very full inscription that besides Ishtar, goddess of battles, there was an honored god- 
dess Belit, who was now the wife of Ashur, instead of Bel. She must be a goddess 
of the greatest dignity, less active than Ishtar, however. We have seen her in the 
seated goddess, just as we find Ishtar in the standing goddess with the stars. It 
is evident that the god thus far chiefly depended on for active help was Adad. He is 
most often mentioned and in connection with Ishtar. We have, then, evidence from 
the texts, as well as from the nature of the engraved figure of the god we have been 
considering, that it is Adad—whether sitting, as we saw him in the previous 
chapter with his thunderbolt, or here standing with thunderbolt or ax or both, 
with quivers from his shoulders, and at times adorned with stars. 

The presence of stars affords the one point of evidence that this is not Adad 
but Adar. Such he has usually been considered, and I myself so regarded him, 
as Lenormant had taught us. But the further view and weight of both the texts 
and the nature of his weapons, seem to require us to identify Adad as the com- 
panion so often of Ishtar on the Assyrian cylinders. 


CHAPTER XLI. 


THE PHYSICIAN’S SEAL. 


Among the objects brought from Babylonia by de Sarzec were two extraordinary 
and unique seals. One of these (fig. 772) is an immense cylinder of light-gray 
limestone, somewhat strati- 
fied, 60 mm. in height and 
33. mm. in diameter. It 
bears an inscription: 


Edina-mu-gi. 
The messenger 
The god Girra 
Ama-gan-sa-du 
Ur-Lugal-Edina, 


the physician, his servant. 





This inscription is in archaic style and is not easily understood. The fourth line 
can hardly be translated. ‘he physician would seem to be the servant of the “ mes- 
senger,”’ although it is not clear what the duties of the messenger were, nor whose 
messenger he was. Possibly he was servant of the god Girra, of whom we know 
very little, except that he was identified with Dibbara and so related to Nergal. 
Girra’s picture may be on this seal, as Edina-mu-gi may be the “messenger” of 
the god. The god Girra is figured, if it be he, in an unusual form. We have a 
standing god, bearded, en face, unusual in a male deity, and not in profile, dressed 
in the usual flounced garment and the high, horned turban. One hand is lifted 
and in the other he perhaps carries an uncertain rod or other object. Before him 
is a slender column from which hang two twisted thongs, and on the top of it 1s 
an uncertain object which may be a low vase with two branches rising from it, or 
a lamp with flames. It may even be the head of a deer with branching horns. 
The whole object looks like a whip with its handle, but the handle is so exactly 
like the two other columns and the objects above it are such that it is unlikely that 
it is a whip with its handle. The two other slender columns have each a vase 
standing on the top. O6cfele suggests that these are instruments for cupping, 
suitable for a physician’s seal, but this is quite improbable. The form is exactly 
that of the usual vase, and lines of parallel ornamentation are visible on the 
cylinder. Vases holding medicine are as much a part of a physician’s establishment 
as are cupping instruments. Leeches were not so infrequent in the East that cups 
would have been necessary, and their use was well known. 
255 


CHAPTER XLII. 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 


When we come to study the art and mythology of what we may call the Syro- 
Hittite region and period, we are confronted with peculiar difficulties. ‘This is 
partly because we are almost entirely without literary sources and partly because 
various streams of influence are hopelessly confused. ‘The period, or at least the art, 
from the Hittite side probably antedates, in good part, the emergence of the Pheni- 
cians. It originated before the entrance of the Egyptians as a conquering and 
assimilating power in Asia. Its native language is still a riddle, inasmuch as the 
few inscriptions we have are not yet satisfactorily read to the agreement of scholars, 
although Professors Sayce, Jensen, and others have made a fair beginning. A 
very few 1 inscriptions: are found in the cuneiform character, but in one of the native 
languages of the region. The Egyptian inscriptions giving the account of the con- 
quest of Rameses II. and of the Rameses treaty with the Hittites are of value for 
names of kings rather than of gods assimilated to Egyptian divine names. Equally 
there must have been a native art, Amorite, Egyptian, or whatever else, before 
the emergence of the Hittites to the sea-coast. 

In the American Journal of Archzology, vol. m1 (1899), No. 1, I have in a 
measure treated “The Hittite Gods in Hittite Art,’’ and have attempted, so far as 
I then could, to connect the Hittite gods with those of Egypt and Mesopotamia. A 
fuller discussion is now proper. Before discussing the cylinders themselves it will be 
necessary to gather the information we have of the Hittite gods from the bas-reliefs. 

The difficulty in the study whether of the art or the mythology of the Hittites 
comes from the fact already mentioned, that from their position between the two 
great empires of antiquity this people was dominated necessarily by the influences 
of civilization and religion from Babylonia and Egypt. Further, their territory from 
the south was overrun again and again by Assyria, and from the west by both Assyria 
and Egypt, until in the eighth century B. C., after a history which we can follow for 
nearly a thousand years, they were swallowed up in the Assyrian Empire. Nor 
does this exhaust the elements of confusion. The Hittite power also coexisted with 
those of other minor but yet influential neighbors, the Phenicians, the Arameans, 
the Jews, the Vannai, and the people of Mitanni and Nahrina. Of some of these 
once strong states, th their national gods, we know very little; and we may thus 
mistakenly ascribe to the Hittites what they may have borrowed from contiguous 
people with whom they fought and traded. We may not err in considering their 
borrowings from Assyria or Egypt, or even from the Mycenzan art; but as to other 
elements there may be great doubt what was their original source. They had their 
own original art and religion as well as language, but they are not yet disentangled. 
The confusion with the Syrians is especially intimate; and the most characteristic 
examples of cylinders are found in Syria and the Hauran. 

The gods of Egypt are well known, their names, their attributes, and their 
conventional representations in statue or painting. On the literary side, the Baby- 

256 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 201) 


lonian, or Assyrian, gods also are well known, although the forms under which 
they were figured are by no means all settled; fully half the principal gods are yet 
in doubt. The Phenician deities are well enough known by name, the Baals and 
Baalats, Melkart and Ashtart, and Adonis and Anat, and Tanith and Resheph. 
Then there were the Syrian gods, Hadad, or Addu, identified by the Assyrians 
with Ramman; Resheph, again, and Atar, corresponding to Ishtar, Atis, and 
Atargatis who seems to have been a compound of the last two. 

Any or all of the gods of Babylonia, Assyria, or Egypt, or any of the gods of 
Phenicia or Syria, as these districts were overrun by the Hittites, were likely to be 
adopted by them and to be confused with their native mythology; just as some 
of the Semitic deities were very early adopted into the Greek pantheon and so 
assimilated that even now we find it difficult to disentangle them; and just as, at a 
later period, the worship of the Persian Mithra was brought from the east to the 
west. But still closer, perhaps, was the relation between the distinctively Hittite 
deities and those of Nahrina and Mitanni, and of the Vannai regions, either early 
occupied by the Hittites, or by people who were the next neighbors to the Hittites 
in their original seats, and who very likely spoke a kindred language, not Semitic 
and only doubtfully Aryan. We are so fortunate as to know the names of the gods 
of Mitanni at an early period in the history of the Hittites, for they are mentioned 
by Dushrattu in his letters preserved among the Tel el-Amarna tablets. His princi- 
pal god was Teshub. Other deities are mentioned by him (excluding Egyptian gods) 
under Assyrian names, such as Ishtar and Shamash. As he mentions a battle with 
the Hittites in which Teshub has delivered him, we might plausibly assume, but 
not certainly, that Teshub was not the Hittite name of the god. At the same time 
we know that Assyria and Babylonia could fight with each other and yet accredit 
their respective victories to the same Ishtar. Other gods of Mitanni were Sausbe 
and Zannukhu. Teshub was also the god of the Shu, a kindred people. 

At a later but yet early period, say from goo to 800 B. C., we have the Van 
inscriptions, which contain long lists of the gods of the Vannai, with the sacrifices 
offered to each. Some forty-five gods worshiped by these predecessors of the 
Armenians are mentioned by name, all ending in s, which seems to be a nominative 
termination. The chief was Khaldis, and with him stood two other principal gods, 
Teisbas (the same evidently as Teshub) and Ardinis. ‘The principal god of Mitani 
and Shu was thus a secondary god, of high rank, among the Vannai. Yet the name 
Teshub being found in the chief order of their deities is an indication that the 
Vannai and the people of Mitanni were closely related to the Hittites, as their 
inscriptions, so far as read, also seem to show. 

Our chief Egyptian source of information for the Hittite mythology is to be 
found in the great inscription of Rameses II., in which he gives a translation of the 
treaty made with him by Khetasira, King of the Hittites, whose capital seems to 
have been the unknown city of Arenena. From the careful copy and translation 
with notes by W. Max Miller (“Der Biindnisvertrag Ramses’ I]. und des Chetiter- 
kénigs”’) we gather the following facts: There was a chief “Sun-god, Lord of 
Heaven, Sun-god of the City of Arenena.”” We are told—but there seems to be a 
confusion here—that in the pictorial engraving attached to the silver text of the 
treaty, the Sun-god was represented as holding in his protecting embrace the 
princess of the land of the Hittites. It would seem that there 1s here a mistake made 

Ty 


258 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


by the Egyptian scribe in the translation from the text of the Hittite treaty, and 
that really it was the goddess who protected the princess. But we are told, as the 
last point in the description of the pictorial engraving of the silver text, that “in- 
mitten der Umfassung des Skulptur” (W. Max Miller’s translation) was the “seal” 
or “ratification’’—whatever the doubtful Egyptian word may mean—of the “Sun- 
god of Arenena, Lord of all lands.” We can conclude with much probability that 
this was the wide-winged solar disk which formed the upper central border of the 
entire design. It would seem as if the Sun-god were 
considered much in the light of the Assyrian Ashur, 
also represented as the Sun-disk; and, very likely, 
the Semitic Assyrians, when they conquered the 
country, took on the supreme local deity. That he 
was considered as in a way superior to the localized 
w\ forms of the Thunder-god is seen from the fact that 
— ™ he is referred to no city except Arenena; and we ob- 
serve that in the expression (line 7) “May God excite no hostility between them”’ 
the deity is spoken of as single and supreme, and apparently the Sun-god is meant. 

There is then mentioned a second god, who takes on local forms, “the Thunder- 
god, lord of heaven, the Thunder-god of the Hittites, the Thunder-god of the city 
Arenena”; and then follow the designations of the Thunder-gods of other cities. 
A figure of the Thunder-god, we are told, was engraved with the silver treaty and 
was represented as embracing the figure of the great king of the Hittites, with an 
inscription stating that this is the seal (or ratification) of the Thunder-god; and with 
this was the seal of the great king Khetasira. The meaning of the embrace is clear 
from fig. 777. 

There is also a goddess whose name is translated into Egyptian as Astarte, 
but who is also given as ’A-sa-kh-ira, or Esakhira, evidently the Ishkara whose 
name we find on the Ashmolean Museum cylinder of fig. 797 and whom we also 
know from the cuneiform inscriptions. Unfortunately, the confusion of the text 
makes us doubtful as to whether one or more goddesses are men- 
tioned; and W. Max Miller suggests doubtfully that a goddess 4% 
of the lower world is added. She is called “the Lady of the S 
bottom of the earth, the Lady of oaths, the mistress of the floods 
and hills of the Hittite lands.” 

It is likely that it was this goddess who was represented as 
embracing the Hittite princess, and not the Sun-god. We should 
expect it to be her “seal” and not that of the Sun-god that was 
afhxed. It may be mentioned here, after W. Max Miller and D4 
Jensen, that the scorpion-star Girtab is “the Ishkara of the Sea,” ae raemaaTTE 
and we recall that the scorpion is one of the most frequent emblems on the Hittite 
seals. Other Egyptian inscriptions give us a Hittite Reshpu or Resheph (figs. 
773, 774) who is also Phenician and Aramean; and also a goddess Kadesh (fig. 775) 
who as figured seems a form of Astarte. ‘The Assyrian inscriptions seem to give 
us the Hittite gods Sandon, whom we know as the Cilician deity Sandes, and 
Tarkhu, whose symbol, Sayce says, is the goat’s head. These names appear also 
in Hittite proper names, but so they do, at least Tarkhu, the biblical Terah, perhaps, 
among the Nairi and the Vannai or Proto-Armenians. We also seem to find in 










SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 259 


the Hittite proper names a Mau, to be identified probably with the Phrygian 
goddess Ma, of Comana. Professor Sayce tells us of Khalan, the chief goddess 
of Carchemish, and Aramiz, a god “supreme over’ the Nine.” 

Passing from a view of these deities of different nations that occupied the regions 
over which the Hittites extended their empire, we come to our main purpose, which 
is to consider the way in which the Hittites themselves, in their glyptic art, repre- 
sented their gods. ‘This introductory sketch, however, will show how difficult it 
is to tell whether a seal is pure Hittite. 

In the study of the mythology of supposed Hittite art, and especially glyptic 
art, we must begin with what we know to be genuine Hittite art. The best index 
is the accompanying use of the Hittite hieroglyphic characters. This suffices for 
a certain number of bas-reliefs and a few seals. 

The sculptures of Boghaz-keui (ancient Pterium) are certainly Hittite, and 
the explorations of H. Winckler have lately found there many Hittite tablets in 
Assyrian script. “They show us two processions meeting each other, the principal 
figures in which seem to be designated by Hittite hieroglyphs. They are on the 
vertical walls of a natural hypzthral rock-chamber. The two long sides are sub- 
stantially parallel and are closed by a short wall connecting them at one end. As 
the visitor passes up the chamber towards the end wall, he sees on the left side a 
procession of male figures in high conical hats and very short garments, moving 
towards the upper end, and on the right side, meeting them, a similar procession 
of female figures in long robes and with high, square cylindrical hats. The two 
processions continue on to the end wall, in the middle of which they meet. As we 
start again from the lower entrance to examine the figures more carefully, we find, 
on the left-hand side, twelve short-robed figures, then thirteen, all similar in short 
robes, with one possible exception, walking forward; then two curious figures 
lifting over their heads a boat, or tray; then four more walking figures; then a 
figure in a long robe, designated as a king by the winged disk over his head, and 
carrying as a sign of authority a reversed crook or so-called “lituus’”; the king is 
preceded by five figures, of which two have wings from the shoulders, evidently 
protecting spirits. This ends the left side wall, but the head of the procession con- 
tinues on the end wall, consisting of three figures, two of them standing high on 
columns, and the front one (fig. 776), who faces the head of the opposite procession, 
stands on the bowed heads of two men; he carries in one hand a symbol, which 
may be his name, if a deity, and a club over his shoulder, while a battle-ax appears 
from his girdle, and in front of his legs appear the head and fore quarters of an 
animal, perhaps a bull, with perhaps a conical Cap such as he wears himself. Facing 
him, at the head of the opposite procession, is a goddess, in a long robe, wearing a 
high cylindrical or mural hat, somewhat like the turreted crown of Demeter; she 
stands on a lioness, or leopard, and holds in one hand a symbol similar to that held by 
the opposite figure, and in the other a staff; while in front of her appears the front of 
an animal, perhaps a lion, as before the opposite god. It is proper to say that 
while these two animals are distinctly figured by Perrot and Guillaume, they show 
very imperfectly on Humann and Puchstein’s photograph of the cast of these figures. 
Behind the goddess is a god, the only short-robed male figure wearing a conical 
hat in this second procession. He stands on a lion or leopard and carries in one 
hand a battle-ax over his shoulder, while the other holds a staff and peculiar emblem, 


260 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


and a dagger hangs from his girdle. He is followed by two female figures carrying 
staffs, standing over a two-headed eagle. ‘The procession is then continued on the 
left wall, with some twenty nearly identical female figures. Apart from the proces- 
sion, on another portion of the wall, a short-robed god, the same as follows the 
goddess in fig. 776, is seen holding his arm in protection about the king, who 1s 
indicated by his battle-ax and “lituus,” and by the winged disk over his head, this 
time resting on columns (fig. 777). The symbol of the god, above his hand, is the 
same as appears in fig. 776. Yet a third representation of the king (fig. 778), with 
the same attributes, appears on another face of the rock. He stands on two moun- 
tains, as if he were a deity, as very likely he was regarded, and he is again protected 
by the winged disk over four columns and by a small divine figure. 

How many members of these two processions are to be taken as gods is not 
clear. Certainly on the central end wall, with the heads of the two processions 
(fig. 776), the two leading figures on the right-hand side, the female figure followed 
by the male, both on fierce animals, are deities. ‘The front opposite figure, standing 
on the bowed heads of two men, 1s doubtless that of a deity; it is not that of the. 
king, who is three times represented wearing a long robe and carrying a “lituus.”’ 


(os) 
Ns 
im 
2) 
a ee 
res 
\ 
q 
H 





There is nothing specially characteristic about this god, except his putting his feet 
on the necks of his enemies. Other figures, two or three with wings and two on 
columns, are of minor gods, if gods at all, as their symbols seem to indicate. 

The front figure in the right-hand procession facing him is a goddess. Of this 
there can be no question. Her long robe, her cylindrical hat, her staff in place of 
a weapon, and her long hair indicate it. That she is a deity and not a queen is 
indicated not only by her place of honor, but by her standing on a lioness. The 
figure following her is certainly a god. This appears from his position on a panther, 
while his weapons, his conical hat, and his short robe indicate the sex. His emblem 
is the bisected flattened circle placed over the body of a nude man, already spoken 
of as accompanying the same god when he appears protecting the king (fig. 777). 

These two deities leading the right-hand procession were evidently assimilated 
in attribute with the male and female armed deities often figured in Assyrian art, 
hitherto identified as Ishtar and Adar, but the latter rather Adad. ‘They generally 
appear together, occasionally one of the two on an animal, occasionally both, 
Ishtar on a lioness or leopard and Adad on a bull, and often with no animal (Chapter 
xL). They differ from our figures chiefly in their more elaborate dress and arms 
and their adornment with stars. It is by no means to be hastily assumed that the 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 261 


Hittites borrowed their representation of their couple of divinities from the Assyrian 
gods; indeed the simpler style of the Hittite gods suggests the contrary. It may 
quite as well be that the Assyrians, who in their earlier history suffered reverses 
from the Hittites, even to the capture of Nineveh, made the identification of two 
of their deities, which they had brought from Babylonia, with these Hittite gods, 
if these were not, indeed, the local deities of the native races antedating the Semitic 
conquest. In Babylonian art Ishtar, who is fully armed, does not stand above a 
lion, but usually has one foot on a lion (figs. 415-417), and would be naturally 
assimilated with a Hittite goddess who stood on a lion; and the combination of 
the two would give the usual Assyrian goddess, full-armed, adorned with her star 
and standing over her lion. A similar process of identification and assimilation 
seems to have taken place with the male deity. We must remember that the Assyrian 
mythologic art has several other very important elements, such as the winged disk, 
the sacred tree, the asheras, the goddess in a high-backed chair, the fight between 
Bel and the dragon (usually a bird or a sphinx rather than a dragon), which it did 
not draw from Babylonia, but from some other source, either the mythology of the 
native races, of whom we know nothing, or of the neighboring races, of whom we 
know nothing until they emerge to sight with the Hittites in the time of the eighteenth 
Egyptian dynasty. 

In fig. 777 we might not have recognized the same god who follows the leading 
goddess in fig. 776 but for his symbol, the nude man with his head replaced by a 
bisected and flattened circle. In fig. 777, which gives us the god with his protecting 
arm about the king, the latter is designated by a winged disk above his head, but 
much more elaborate than that which designates the king in the procession. ‘The 
disk is developed and stands on four pillars, and is, perhaps, to be compared with 
Shamash (also Anu), or Ashur, the god of the heavens, resting on the four pillars 
of the earth. Between the pillars the god himself, Ashur-Shamash, if we may 
venture this identification, is seen above the king alone in fig. 778, where we also 
find the stars or rather the sun, in and above the design, and a figure like the Greek 
Q rounded at the bottom, known to us in the Hittite inscriptions, taking the place 
of the usual central disk. This we have already recognized as the symbol of the 
goddess Ninkharshag, or Belit, so that it would seem as if the chief god and goddess 
were combined. 

The interpretation of these elaborate temple processions is by no means easy. 
The interpretation I would give to them differs from that given by other writers, 
but, like most of them, I make it a religious ceremony. The king (or queen) belongs 
to the left-hand procession. He is not so apparently important and commanding 
a figure as might be expected, standing in advance of the middle of his procession 
and recognized by his winged disk. Both king and disk are, as we have seen, made 
prominent and fully developed when apart from the procession, as in figs. 777 and 
778. We may be sure, then, that the king is the controlling human figure. He is 
followed, in the rear, by his soldiers running, and nearer are his attendants and 
attendant spirits, the latter recognized by their wings; and he is preceded by several 
of his gods, of whom the front one stands on the heads of his conquered enemies. 
Although this front figure carries no distinctive emblems, I yet agree that it must 
represent a principal god. We then have, it appears to me, the victorious king of 
a people allied in race, entering with all his gods into the sanctuary of the native 


262 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


race and its gods. They are received in welcome by the deities and priestesses of 
the sanctuary. Their chief gods are two, those standing on the lion and leopard. 
Those that follow, the two on the double-headed eagle and the rest of the feminine 
procession, are either goddesses of the local towns, like the unnamed Hittite local 
deities in the Hittite treaty with Egypt, or are priestesses, such as were held in honor 
in the land of the Amazons. ‘The men of the conquered people are designated solely 
by the two chiefs, or kings, on whose heads the victorious god stands in the left-hand 
procession. The adoption of the conquering king by the gods of the conquered 
territory is indicated plainly by the embrace in fig. 777. If this interpretation 
is correct, everything in the right-hand procession is local and belongs directly 
to the territory of Pterium, especially the two-headed eagle and the two other 
animals on which the leading gods stand; while the various objects on the left 
characterize the invaders, as do especially the two representations of the elaborate 
winged disk over the two Ionic columns and the two other columns (which Perrot 
and Chipiez think are the fronts of two bulls), the little standing figure of the god 
between them, and the © over his head. Yet the general resemblance between the 
figures of the two processions and the arms held in the girdle of the male figures 





“782 
on both sides, as well as their hats, inclines one to believe that they were of allied 
races. At any rate, the invaders were not Assyrians; that they came from the west 
rather than the east may be indicated by the fact that they are pictured on the 
western wall of the sanctuary. Very unfortunately the leading god of the invaders 
carries no special insignia, so that he can not be as easily identified with other 
figures of Asianic deities as can the two local Hittite gods; but the winged pro- 
tecting spirits frequently appear as far west as Cyprus, and instead of the boat over 
two human-headed bulls, as in Humann and Puchstein “Reisen in Kleinasien,”’ 
p- 57, we elsewhere have the bulls supporting the winged disk, as in figs. 683-686. 

This view of two advancing processions need not exclude the interpretation 
which makes them represent the marriage of the god and goddess. The god may 
be the Vested God of Chapter xivi1, while the goddess will be the goddess of 
Chapter L, but here decently clad. There is evidence that these two deities were 
husband and wife; and we may presume that Teshub was their son, although 
we have no evidence for it. 

Other deities represented in the reliefs at Boghaz-keui, or the neighboring 
Eyuk, need not detain us long. They are the figures with wings rising almost ver- 
tically from their shoulders, a sort of guardian spirit, also grotesque winged figures 
with the head of a lion or dog, with hands raised, guarding the entrance, and one 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 263 


extraordinary figure of a sort of Hercules or Gilgamesh (fig. 780) in which the head 
is in a Hittite conical hat, the ears carry earrings, the shoulders are the fore quarters 
of lions, while the body is made up of two lions with heads downwards and a column 
takes the place of legs. This figure is closely related to other figures of a similar 
deity met elsewhere, but probably not of any special preéminence in the pantheon. 

Of other representations of deities found in sculpture or bas-reliefs, we may 
mention the jolly god of Ibriz (779), decked with bunches of grapes and carrying 
a handful of tall ears of grain. As this figure is well known and has nothing analo- 
gous on any other known monument, it need not detain us, and we can not tell 
whether it was Sandon or some other local Cilician deity that is represented by this 
figure, half a Bacchus and half a Hercules. 

Much more important is the seated goddess of Eyiik (fig. 781). Very peculiar 
is the high-backed chair in which she sits. Such a chair is not known in old Baby- 
lonian art, and we may gather that the Assyrian goddess in such a chair, not seldom 
figured on the cylinders (Chapter xxx1x), was borrowed from the Hittites. Mr. 
Ramsay has noted a second bas-relief of this goddess, found by him at Eyiik, before 
whom a worshiper is pouring a libation. Here compare the seated goddess of 


Maltaya (fig. 782). 





Of the greatest importance for our purpose, hardly second to the figures from 
Boghaz-keui and Eyiik, and more valuable on account of the inscriptions in Assyrian 
and Aramean which we can date, are the bas-reliefs of Senjirli excavated and de- 
scribed by Humann and Puchstein (“Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli’’), of about 
700 B.C. The inscription of Bar-rekub on a statue shows the worship of the gods 
Hadad, El, Rekub-el, and Shamash. Of course, these are Syrian deities, but the 
Syrian and Hittite arts are utterly confused. ‘The bas-reliefs show us, with various 
figures of men and animals, in war and the chase, four figures of gods, who are not 
to be all identified with those mentioned in the inscription, and which may well 
be earlier. They are shown in figs. 783, 784, 785, 786, 787. Of these the god Adad 
is easily recognized by his thunderbolt and ax. The seated and the standing 
goddesses we shall see frequently on the cylinders, and there is a winged deity not 
easily identified, with a bird or animal head. There are other mythological figures, 
a winged sphinx, another composite winged animal, a sphinx with two heads, one 
of a lion and one of a woman; also a lion-headed deity like Nergal (fig. 788) lifting 
an animal by the hind legs and with a bird over each raised hand. All these sculp- 
tures have the Hittite style, the Hittite short garments for the male figures, the 
shoes with turned-up toes, and the dumb-bell-shaped shield. 

It may be well to include in this survey of the Hittite bas-reliefs of their gods 
two figures from Carchemish, or Jerabis, as they are not well known and the only 


264 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


photographs of them, I believe, were taken by myself during the Wolfe Expedition 
to Babylonia. One of them (fig. 789) is reproduced in the American Journal of 
Archeology, first series, Iv, plate 4. The drawing is much softer and finer than 
the usual Hittite or even Assyrian sculptures, and it doubtless belongs to a very 
late period of the Hittite art. The goddess, resembling Ishtar, appears to hold a 
vase in one hand and a basket, or pail, in the other. Still more in the Babylonian 
style, yet frankly modified in the style of the art of a region further west, is the 
figure of the naked Ishtar of Zirbanit (fig. 790), on a slab of alabaster, which the 
men who opened the mound at Jerabis left cruelly exposed to the elements, so that 
it was nearly ruined and falling to pieces, with cracks all through it, when I saw it 
in 1884. It is a shame that this and the other goddess just figured and one or two 
other slabs with inscriptions and figures were not carefully removed. ‘The goddess 
holds her breasts instead of simply placing her hands before her, as in the Babylonian 
figures, and she is adorned with the wings from the shoulders which the Hittites 
so much affected.* 





788 790 
A stele from Babylon, evidently carried there from some Hittite region, inscribed 


with Hittite characters, which gives us a figure of thé storm-god Teshub (fig. 791), is 
almost a duplicate of another found in Senjirli. The god, in high boots, tipped up at 
the toes, wears a short close tunic and a peculiar high hat with a bulb at the top. 
About the tunic is a wide girdle, which holds a stout dagger. In one uplifted hand 
he carries a thunderbolt and in the other an ax or haminer. The god is bearded, 
and a long lock or queue falls down behind. 

These are, I believe, all the representations of Hittite deities found in their 
bas-reliefs that require consideration. We now pass to their cylinder-seals. 

The difficulty of assigning a seal to one or another of the races and peoples 
who occupied Asia Minor and Syria during the period from 2000 B. C. to 600 B. C. 
is even greater than that of assigning a local bas-relief. While the Hittite Empire 
and art were predominant at one time or another over all the region from Smyrna 
to Lake Van, and from Nineveh to Sidon, yet the succession of races and rulers has 
been so various and has been so little disentangled by historical scholars that it is 
hard’ - possible to tell what elements of art or mythology were contributed by each 
people severally; and in the case of seals we do not know where they were made. 

This was the period of the Phenicians, the Syrians, the Hebrews, the Mycenzean 
Greeks, and other races struggling for control or existence. They were none of 
them independent of the influences of the two powerful empires of the Nile and 
the Euphrates. ‘Their art and their religion were so permeated with the elements 





* See also London Graphic, December 11, 1880. 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 265 


borrowed from these two more ancient sources that it is a task of the utmost diffi- 
culty, not yet successfully accomplished, to separate what was native, local, and 
original, from what was borrowed; and the task is made more difficult by the suc- 
cession of ruling races in the same territory. A seal uninscribed, even if we know 
its provenance, may be Assyrian, Hittite, Syrian, Phenician, or Mycenzan, so far 
as the location where it is found will tell us. Still we may often reach practical 
certainty. The long supremacy of the Hittites in this region during the period 
when cylinder seals were in use gives the presumption in their favor in many cases 
in which the archeological data are not conclusive. Under the Hittite name itself 
we must include a succession of peoples of the same general race, but which inhabited 
different sections from Armenia to-the Mediterranean, and who waged for centuries 
equal war with Assyria and Egypt. ‘They are the Mitanni; the people of Nahrina; 
the Chatti, or Hittites proper; the Lukki, or Lycians; the Kummukh of Comma- 
gene; the Kaski; the Tabal, or Tibareni; the Muski (Meschech, Moschians), of 
Phrygia; the Kumani (of Comana); and the Khilakki, of Cilicia. Messerschmidt 
sees in the Lydian and Cilician kingdoms the last shoots of Hittite state organization. 

And in this connection it must never be forgotten that Egyptian influence 
must have been very powerful from the very earliest historical period. Snefru, 
the last king of the third dynasty, about 2900 B. C. sent a fleet of forty ships to 
Lebanon for cedar wood (Breasted, “Ancient Records, Egypt,” 1, p. 66); and 
Pepi I., of the sixth dynasty, invaded Palestine about three centuries later. ‘The age 
of these dynasties is still contested, and Petrie makes Snefru reign from about 3998 
B. C. to 3969. Doubtless Egypt was predominant, or at least influential, in Syria 
long before the eighteenth dynasty and long before the Hittite predominance. 
There is no reason why cylinders might not have shown Egyptian influence from 
the earliest times, for the firs. six dynasties used cylinders rather than scarabs. 
Certain it is that Semitic and Asianic elements entered in the aboriginal Egyptian 
stock in a prehistoric period and with the first dynasty, and we do not know but they 
may have come as much from Syria as from Arabia. Along the coast of Asia cyl- 
inders are likely to have been introduced from Babylonia quite as early as in Egypt. 

Possibly fig. 945 may give us an early illustration of the Hittite type as it was 
seen with purely northern influence, unaffected by that of Babylonia. It belongs 
to a style of early art of the region, usually to be seen on large cylinders, early As- 
syrian, of soft serpentine, but in this case limestone. Apparently a goddess in a 
square hat, like that of the goddess heading the procession of Boghaz-keui, stands 
on a bull with its tail raised like that of a lion. Theis is hardly the god Teshub lead- 
ing his bull. She holds in one hand a circle and she is attended by two bird-headed 
genil, one of whom, and perhaps both, holds a “‘cone” and carries a basket or 
pail. Above and below is a rude guilloche. Such a design is related to those early 
forms with the attendants before the sacred tree. It is not easy to identify the god- 
dess, but we may relate her to early forms. 

A Hittite feature which is very noticeable in the Egyptian representations of 
Hittites is the long queue worn by them. This seldom appears on the Hittite seals, 
but an unusual example is shown in fig. goo, where we have the frequent design 
of two archaic-looking figures drinking through a tube from a vase. 

A splendid example of the Syro-Hittite cylinder art is to be seen in fig. 792, 
which is given here because in a rare way it represents the three principal Hittite 


266 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


deities whom we shall consider in the succeeding chapters. The goddess, carefully 
exposing her nudity, is probably Ishkhara, or Khalan (Sayce). Of the two gods, 
that to the right is Teshub, or Adab, with weapon over his head, and that to the left 
the more dignified god, perhaps Khaldis or Tarkhu. These deities, with the other 
personages and objects represented, we shall observe and consider as they appear 
on other cylinders. For the classical accounts of the deities worshiped in Phrygia, 
etc., the goddess Ma, the god Men and the youth Attis, as well as the local Greek 
inscriptions, reference must be made to Roscher and special papers, but these are 
of a later date and represent an even more syncretistic mythology. It would be 
beyond the purpose of this work to develop the relations of the later to the earlier 
conceptions. It is enough here to attempt to gather the artistic material out of 
which the student of comparative mythology can draw his identifications, as one 
deity passed into later and often alien forms. 


ML Yen 


Al) Amr 
AS PaITATTAN ae, 
CS* YN 


SE 





CHAPTER XLIII. 


CYLINDERS WITH HITTITE INSCRIPTIONS. 


Cylinder seals with Hittite inscriptions are extremely rare. Four of those 
that are known belong to the Metropolitan Museum at New York. One of these 
is shown in fig. 793. It is a large cylinder of rather soft black serpentine, the 
material and shape such as we find with the earlier Assyrian cylinders, and the 
entire space is occupied with five lines of Hittite inscriptions. They are apparently 
rather carelessly engraved, and the condition of 
the cylinder is not such as to make it easy to copy 
them. Nearly all we can make out of them is an 
occasional clearly Hittite character. I should pre- 
sume that the date goes back to a period before 
the invasions of the eighteenth dynasty. It is very 
unfortunate that this cylinder is so much battered. 

Another is a cylinder silver-plated on copper, 
shown in fig. 794. It will be remembered that 
silver seems to have been a favorite material with 
the Hittites. The famous bilingual boss of King 
Tarkondemus is in silver, and the treaty between 
the Hittite and the Egyptian king was engraved on silver. Here, between border 
lines, both at the top and bottom, is the guilloche. Between the two guilloches is 
seen the king, recognized as such by the winged disk over his head. He wears a 
long garment, and perhaps a low close cap, and shoes upturned at the toes, as do 
the other figures. One hand is lifted in worship to the god before him, and in the 
other he carries what has been called the priestly lituus, but which is more likely 
the conventional royal insignia in the shape of a serpent. Facing him, but separated 
from the king by two vertical lines of inscription of seven characters, is the god, 








794 
who is evidently Teshub-Adad. He wears his short garment and a close cap with 
a horn in front. One hand is lifted in benediction, and with the other he holds, over 
his shoulder, his triple-pronged thunderbolt. Following the king is an attendant, 
or soldier, in a long garment and a high-peaked hat, and holding what appears to 
be an ax. Other objects are a bird, a star, and a wedge. 

Another is a broken, dark chalcedony cylinder (fig. 795). It is not pierced, 
but has one end reduced to form a handle, which is broken off, and a part of the 
face has also been lost, but not enough to render the design at all uncertain. On 

267 


268 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


the lower end is a winged disk over three Hittite characters, the same that are 
repeated on the surface of the cylinder. Here is a rudely engraved sacred tree, on 
each side of which is a composite, winged figure, with the head, feet, and tail of an 
animal, an erect body, and a branch in its hand. There are a star, a crescent, and 
a low tree, and three or four characters, purely hieroglyphic and presumably 
Hittite. The exaggerated prominence of the Egyptian shent: worn by the two 
monsters is observable. 





Yet a fourth extremely interesting cylinder, with a definitely characteristic 
Hittite inscription, is shown in fig. 796. It gives us an unusual case of ophiolatry. 
A serpent adorned with a profusion of horns is supported on a short column. It 
must be considered as a brazen serpent on a column, such as we are told that Moses 
set up in the wilderness, and which was worshiped by the Jews later and destroyed 
by Hezekiah in his reformation. Behind the serpent stands a worshiper, and behind 
him is a column surmounted by a crescent, as if it were the ashera of Sin. The 
inscription consists of ten clear characters, arranged in three columns after the 
style first made familiar by my publication of the four inscribed steles from Hamath 

AY in the Second Statement of the American Pales- 
tine Exploration Society, 1873, from which 
Prof. A. H. Sayce drew the material for his 
first investigation of the Hittite inscriptions. 

Another cylinder with a Hittite inscription 
belongs to the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford 
(fig. 797), and it has the extraordinary merit 
of being a bilingual, as besides its column of four Hittite characters it carries 
three lines of cuneiform inscriptions which indicate that it belonged to “‘Indilimma, 
son of Sin-irdama, Worshiper of the deity Ishkhara.”’ 

While these five cylinders exhaust the list of those known to carry a Hittite 
inscription, it is well to include here one other cylinder which, if not Hittite, is yet 
Asianic and shows abundant Hittite influence, and contains an inscription which 
is, most probably, from an alphabet allied to the Hittite. It is seen in fig. 798. It 
is a very elaborate cylinder, crowded with animals, lions, deer, and ibexes, a heraldic 
bird, and, most noticeable, a cuttle-fish under two crossed ibexes. ‘The eyes are 
carefully drawn, so that it is impossible to imagine this to be a sacred tree. But 
the inscription gives this cylinder unique value. ‘There are three characters, over 
the ibex suckling her kid. Two of the characters suggest derivation from the Hittite, 
but, what with Cypriote, Cretan, and Lycian scripts, all perhaps derived from the 
Hittite, it is not easy to place it exactly. The presence of the cuttle-fish fixes this 
as from a sea-coast region, but we know that the Hittite type of art appears on rock 
bas-reliefs as far to the west as Smyrna. The cuttle-fish is not frequent on cylinders, 





CYLINDERS WITH HITTITE INSCRIPTIONS. 269 


although I have met it on other seals. It is very abundant and more fully developed 
on terra-cotta objects, as in fig. 799. 

In this connection it is proper to call attention to the bilingual silver boss of 
Tarkondemus (fig. 800), King of Erme. Unfortunately these two bilinguals are 
so short that they give us little aid in decipherment. There is quite a number of 
round, pierced objects, of terra-cotta or of hematite, sometimes with several Hittite 


\hiee 






characters, which seem to have taken the place of the cylinder seal. Examples 
are given in figs. 801, 802. Both of these show, on hematite, the elaborate Hittite 
and Mycenzan spiral; this is absent in fig. 803, which is of terra-cotta. Fig. 804 
is of a different type, a rectangular hematite seal, with the four vertical edges beveled 
and engraved on the four sides as well as the end. 

Much labor has been expended by Sayce, Jensen, and others on the decipher- 
ment of the Hittite inscriptions, and some characters are satisfactorily determined, 
and yet much remains to be done before scholars can be agreed as to the translation 
or even the transliteration of the inscriptions. 






Y) 


e 
"GCS Y) Y 





CHAPTER XLIV. 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS; EGYPTIAN STYLE. 


Inasmuch as the lands bordering on the Mediterranean coast were very much 
controlled by Egyptian culture and religion, we may expect their influence to appear 
on the seals of this region, and such is the fact. We know that the Syrian coast 
was overrun by the Egyptian armies in the time of the eighteenth and nineteenth 
dynasties. Egyptian kings recorded their victories and figured their battles with 
the Hittites and other tribes. The Tel el-Amarna tablets give us rich historical 
data and show us that Babylonian influence had preceded the Egyptian, inasmuch 
as the Babylonian was the language and the script of international intercourse. 
But certainly commerce had carried Egyptian art motives all along the coast, cen- 
turies before the time of Thothmes and Ramses. The multitude of scarabs found 
in Syria and the neighborhood, as well as in Crete and Cyprus, are further evidences 
of Egyptian influence. Accordingly we find Egyptian gods on a considerable num- 
ber of cylinders. ‘The style of the art, in general, is not Egyptian, but it appears that 
Egyptian figures had been applied to a style that was already native. ‘There is 
not to be expected a hieroglyphic inscription, or the cartouche of a king. The 
cylinders are quite unlike those found in Egypt. The reason is clear. The Egyptian 
cylinder belonged to the earlier period, and was not much affected, except archaisti- 
cally, after about the twelfth dynasty. Accordingly the Egyptian cylinder would 
not have been seen by the Syrian or Hittite people, and could not be copied. But 
on the Babylonian cylinder it was easy to engrave the crux ansata or figures of 
Egyptian gods, more or less modified for native taste. 

Very important, in this study, are two cylinders belonging to the de Clercq 
Collection, figs. 805, 806. They are inscribed, in Babylonian script, with the names 
of the owners, father and son, residents of Sidon. We might call them Phenician, 
except that they come from a period, probably, that antedates the Phenician writing 
and the characteristic Phenician art. They might belong to a period of about 
1500 B. C., when, as we now know from the Tel el-Amarna tablets, Babylonian was 
the Gera: language of the Syrian coast; and at the same time Thess might possibly 
be some centuries older, inasmuch as the Babylonian must have been the language 
and the script for one or two thousand years. ‘The script is poor and would seem 
to follow some other than a lapidary style. It is neither pure Babylonian nor 
Assyrian, but a special local form of writing, more like what appears on some of the 
Tel el-Amarna tablets. ‘These seals, with a few others of the same type, form a 
connecting link with those that we call Hittite, or Syro-Hittite, and they help us to 
fix the age of the more numerous seals, inasmuch as in style and design they are 
related beyond question to them. Fig. 805 has four lines, crowded into the space, 
and gives us the name of “Addumu, of the City of Sidon, his seal”; while fig. 806 
allows room for three lines, which read: “Annipi, son of Addumu, the Sidonian.” 
In fig. 805 there are three figures, a worshiper between two gods, and all in the 
Egyptian style. One of the gods, however, is the Syrian Resheph, or Hittite Teshub, 

270 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: EGYPTIAN STYLE. 271 


or Assyrian Adad. He holds a club over his head and in the other hand a shield. 
The other god is the Egyptian Set, with the head of the animal, and carrying on his 
hand the forked emblem of serenity. The other cylinder, fig. 806, shows us the 
same two gods, the Syro-Hittite Resheph-Teshub, and the Egyptian Set; but 
between them is the god Horus, surmounted with the wingless solar disk and the 
urzeus. It will be noticed that Resheph-Teshub wears a high helmet surmounted 
by a sort of bulb, such as we shall later see him wear on his head. 

Yet another cylinder of the same general style is seen in fig. 807. Here, again, 
are three figures, of which one represents the owner of the seal, in the attitude of a 
king or warrior, between the two gods, Amon-Ra and Horus. ‘The worshiper 
holds in one hand the shaft of a spear, and wears on his head the ate? and on his 
body the short shent: reaching forward, as so often in Egyptian figures. The inscrip- 
tion, which is admirably engraved after the Babylonian style, might well be 2000 
B. C., and gives us two names which are not Babylonian, and which Oppert reads 
“Sumuch-mikalu, son of Yamutra-nunnia.” 





Cylinders of this type may be more Syrian than Hittite. They are character- 
ized by gods with animal heads and Egyptian headdresses. With these will be, 
perhaps, the peculiar Egyptian garment shenti, protuberant in front. These charac- 
teristics were mostly lost in the later Syro-Hittite seals, although such elements as 
the crux ansata and the guilloche, if that be of Egyptian origin, persisted. We see 
in fig. 808, two such Egyptian figures dressed in the shent:, before them a plainly 
dressed, bareheaded worshiper holding a crux ansata, and behind them the purely 
Babylonian goddess who takes various réles indifferently, whether as Aa, wife of 
Shamash, or Shala, wife of Ramman, or other goddesses. The two Egyptian figures 
are alike, except that one carries a peculiar staff with two simple wings, or convex 
crescents at the top, under the winged disk; and each wears the headdress much 
like that worn by Horus, whether with the human head or the head of a hawk. Here 
the two figures seem to represent the same god repeated for symmetry. 

Another -case is a cylinder found in the Hauran (fig. 809). A worshiper, in a 
simple robe and bareheaded, stands before three figures. The first is a deity holding 
what may be a papyrus staff, and before him is the emblem of life. Behind the 


272 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


uncertain god is a figure in protuberant shent:, with a lion head like Sekhet; and 
following is a figure closely swathed in the mummy form of Osiris. In fig. 810 the 
male worshiper wears the shenti, while the winged goddess is closely draped to 
her ankles. Before her stands the worshiper in a round hat. There is a slender 
column branching at the top, on each side of which is the same bird-headed deity, 
holding in his hand what is probably a serpent. This again might be Horus, while 
the goddess is more Syrian in appearance, as is suggested by her dove. We see the 
serpents again held in the hand of an Egyptian deity such as Apis, with the head 
of a bull, in fig. 811. The other objects are a sphinx facing an asp over a lion, also 
a disk within a crescent. Again in fig. 812 we recognize an Egyptian style in the 
headdress worn by the two figures between which the worshiper stands, even if 





“7820 Ot eres Se arr ra 
they can not be safely identified with particular Egyptian divinities. We see the 
dove over the emblem of life and a lion over the guilloche, which is above a sphinx 
and an ibex. 

Figure 813 is another example of the Egyptian style. Two winged female 
figures face each other and hold each the emblem of serenity. Between them is a 
worshiper clothed in the shenti. There is also a guilloche, above and below which 
is a heraldic vulture with a long neck like a serpent, looped in a circle. As a simpler 
design we may notice fig. 814, where two ox-headed human figures face each other, 
each holding a sort of mace; and there is a rabbit over a bird; also fig. 815, where a 
long-skirted goddess holds a branch over a table and also holds a branch (omitted 
in drawing) in her other hand. Before her a figure in the short shenti holds his hand 
on an object on the table, as if presenting it, and behind her a similar bareheaded 
figure presents a bird. Between them is perhaps a fish, and the guilloche is between 
a griffin and an ibex. We may perhaps also include with the cylinders showing a 
preponderant Egyptian influence that seen in fig. 816. Here three figures, each 
dressed in the shenti and in an Egyptian headdress with a curved line each side 
of the hat, offer Egyptian emblems—the last a serpent—to a kneeling genius with 
a bird’s head and wings. In the register below them are two lions and a third 
uncertain animal; another portion of the cylinder shows a bull on one knee over 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: EGYPTIAN STYLE. Zia 


two human figures facing each other. The two naked animal-headed figures seen 
in fig. 817 kneeling about a winged disk on a column are suggestively Egyptian, 
and the worshiper standing each side is clad in the Egyptian shenti. here is also 
a larger worshiping figure, with two ibexes and a lion. We may equally see the 
Egyptian control in fig. 818. Here the Hittite eagle has the head of the ram, sur- 
mounted by a vase and feathers, and the smaller eagle has the head of an animal. 
On each side of the larger eagle is a kneeling, nude personage holding what may be 
the long stem of a flower—a lotus or a papyrus head, or possibly a serpent. But 
in the case of fig. 819 it is evidently the papyrus which the middle one of the three 
figures clad in the shent: holds, and we may presume that the one to the right holds 
the lotus. A worshiper and a small bowing figure stand before the seated deity, 
and there is an Egyptian asp. The guilloche is above and below, as it is also in 
fig. 820, where we’have three deities, one Horus with the head of a sparrow, 
the goddess Sekhet with the head of a lion, and a third human-headed and not 
identified. Before each stands a worshiper. The garments and the emblems are 
quite Egyptian. There are two altars, one columnar and the other a table, beside 
the repeated tat, emblem of stability. In fig. 821 we have a small seal with five 
small figures, the female in a long garment, and the male in the short protuberant 
apron. 

: The only case I recall in which a Syro-Hittite cylinder has an inscription in 
Egyptian hieroglyphs is shown in fig. 822. The guilloche settles the locality, but 
the two figures are absolutely Egyptian in their drawing and attitude. ‘The god is 
Horus, with his worshiper, and the main part of the remaining space is taken up 
with the Egyptian characters which seem to give the name of the owner and to 
dedicate him to the god Horus. 

This class of cylinders may be expected to be nearly all in hematite, and of 
the moderately small size that came into use about the time of Gudea, and were 
replaced by larger ones in the Kassite period, to be even larger in the time of the 
second empire. The influence which produced Syrian cylinders of this style was 
as early as the time of Hammurabi. These Syro-Egyptian cylinders differed from 
the true Babylonian in the border lines close to the edge, in the minute delicacy of 
the crowded design, and also in the Egyptian elements which were at first predomi- 
nant with the domination of the Egyptian religion, brought in mainly by conquest 
and the residence of Egyptian governors of cities or districts who introduced a 
court religion; but later these elemefts were largely lost. ‘This would seem to put 
the date of many of these cylinders as early as 1500 to 1400 B. C., and they might 
well go back as early as the twelfth dynasty. But Egyptian deities did not long 
remain in evidence, making room for those that were native or yielding to the 
more permanent influence of Babylonia. Yet other Egyptian emblems remained, 
such as the sphinx, the crux ansata, and, perhaps from this source, the guilloche. 


18 


CHAPTER XLV. 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: BABYLONIAN TYPES. 


It is evident that the Syro-Hittite cylinders were derived from the Babylonians, 
and that at a period not of extreme antiquity. Whether they were preceded, accom- 
panied, or followed by the use of the rude round or rectangular seals of soft 
serpentine, which are so common, is not wholly easy to determine, as these have 
not yet been fairly studied. On not a few of the cylinders the designs are not 
specially Hittite, and there may be some confusion among them; certain peculiar- 
ities in the cutting or in the pose or clothing of the figures will usually betray them. 
Such a one is seen in fig. 823. Here is a seated god, much in the Babylonian 
type, holding a cup, and before him a star, an ape, and the sun in a crescent, all 


S 
z 
= 
FF 
Z| 
Es 
if 





: 824 

Babylonian. Before him is a worshiper, still Babylonian, except that he carries in 
his hand two serpents (hardly lotuses) grasped by the neck. Behind the seated 
god is Gilgamesh, de face, lifting a lion over his head. The remaining space is 
taken by a worshiper with a cup, a sphinx which is not at all Babylonian in 
style, and over these a bird, a bull, and a bull’s head. ‘There is also a “libra” 
without its accompanying vase. Here the two serpents, the sphinx’s headdress, 
the headdress of the small worshiper, and the arrangement of the small objects, 
ally this cylinder with the Hittite art, while the main types are Babylonian. It is 
to be noticed that the Assyrian motives which came in as early as goo B. C. are not 
to be looked for on these cylinders. Their date is then to be placed in the period 
between 2500 B. C. and goo B. C., but chiefly in the latter five centuries, as the 
Egyptian influence will show. 

Probably the cylinder shown in fig. 824 should be regarded as Syro-Hittite, 
although it might be classed as purely Babylonian. Three deities are figured. Sha- 
mash does not hold his usual weapon. We know him from his foot on a mountain, 
but his weapons are peculiar. Over his left shoulder he carries the ax, and in his 
right hand he holds as a scepter what appears to be a modification of the rod and 
ring of the Babylonian gods. The ring is but half a circle and seems attached to 
the rod, and the summit of the rod ends with a surprisingly small crescent, which 

274 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: BABYLONIAN TYPES. 275 


makes us ask if this be not the Sin worshiped in Harran. Before the god is a table 
with loaves. Next stands the goddess Ishtar de face, and before the two a worshiper. 
Then we have Adad, with his foot on a victim, and before him a small worshiper 
with a branch. 

A fine example, but unfortunately broken, is shown in fig. 825. The figures 
are Babylonian but the style is Hittite. We have a typical Aa-Shala goddess in 
her flounced garment. The two broken 
male figures symmetrically facing each 
other retain only the lower portion. 
The eagle is Hittite, with its two heads, 
but old Babylonian in its seizure of the | SSS 
two ibexes in its talons, after the styleof ~ © a ae a 
the eagle of Lagash. It suggests connection with the early rather than the middle 
Babylonian Empire. The guilloche is Hittite and very characteristic, even although 
we have one or two possible examples of it in very early Chaldean art (see figs. 
58, 1082). 

In fig. 826 the griffins, the hand, and the guilloche indicate the Syro-Hittite 
origin (this cylinder came from Syria), but the human or divine figures, two stand- 
ing and two seated, are rather Babylonian. Between the duplicated figures of what 
we may presume to be the goddess is a columnar altar, or table, perhaps with cakes, 
possibly with a flame. The purpose of the curved object in the hand of the god- 
dess is not evident; the same implement appears in fig. 827, where two figures 
stand symmetrically before a columnar altar, but one of them carries a branch, as 
does also the following figure. There is a “libra” (no vase) and also the guilloche. 
Fig. 828 is more elaborate and gives us in the upper register the two seated deities 
with the two bent implements, and between then what may be some sort of co- 
lumnar altar or standard. Behind one is a worshiper and behind the other the not 
infrequent procession of four figures. The lower register gives two sphinxes, a star, 
and a kneeling figure seizing a humped bull by the horns. 

We may consider fig. 829 as showing Babylonian influences, although the 
weapons are Hittite. ‘he fig- 
ures are in two couples, all 
in short garments. In one a 
figure with an ax over his 
shoulder takes by the wrist 
the other, who lifts a weapon 
over his head. Between them 
are the vase and “libra,” but 
their proper positions are reversed. This is one of the rather numerous indications 
that in copying these two symbols the foreign artist did not understand their 
meaning. This we gather from the cases in which only one of the two appears. 
The other couple face each other, one carrying a crook over his shoulder and 
holding in the other hand the head of a slain enemy. The figure before him, 
whom we may presume to be the god, lifts an emblem like a cross, which may 
be meant to represent the Egyptian emblem of stability. 

A cylinder which shows the passage from the Assyrian to the Hittite type is 
seen in fig. 830. It is in two registers, separated by a guilloche. The lower register, 








276 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


mostly lost by fracture, appears to have contained Hittite sphinxes. In the upper 
register an uncertain figure, perhaps a deity, stands each side of a Babylonian 
caduceus, with its central vase between the two serpents. Iwo figures follow, one 
with a branch over his shoulder. ‘There are two other figures facing each other, 
who may represent the principal Hittite deity as seen in Chapter XLVII. 

In fig. 823 we have seen Gilgamesh lifting a lion over his head. Gilgamesh 
is frequent in the Syro-Hittite art, and it is not strange that he was transferred from 
the Ionian coasts into the Greek mythology as Hercules. In fig. 831 Gilgamesh 
stands with one foot on the neck of a reversed bull, while under them is the Hittite 
guilloche and behind him is a lion over a long-haired, nude worshiper. On one 
side of a strict sacred tree surmounted by a winged disk is a god much in the attitude 
of the Babylonian Ramman, but holding a curved weapon in his right hand, while 
on the other side is the goddess Aa-Shala. It will be seen that the disk takes the 
form of a rosette, which suggests that the rosette when seen alone represents the sun. 





A very beautiful cylinder seen in fig. 832 is large and shows Assyrian as well 
as Babylonian influence. Gilgamesh is duplicated symmetrically, standing on 
each side of a column, made of small circles, on which rests the symbol of the sun 
drawn with circles in place of the four alternating streams. Evidently the meaning 
of the streams had been lost in the transfer to the north and west. But the figure of 
Gilgamesh is finely drawn. ‘That the sun on the column takes the place of the sacred 
tree appears from the following figure, which is bird-headed and winged, and carries 
a pail in one hand and a branch in the other. Behind him is the owner in the attitude 
of worship, and last in the procession, as frequently, is the goddess Aa-Shala. Under 
these three figures is an elaborate guilloche. 

In fig. 833 Gilgamesh stands nude between two figures of Aa-Shala, while 
between them, duplicated, is the “libra”’ under a vase; the remaining space is filled 
by two rabbits, over a guilloche, over three marching figures. 

A most delicately engraved cylinder is seen in 834. Gilgamesh kneels and holds 
down two bulls by the head, their bodies reversed. Under him is a griffin whose 
front leg reaches toward a figure which suggests Eabani, who holds an ibex with one 
hand. Within an angular guilloche two sphinxes face each other, and, below, two 
lions face each other with a human head between them (omitted in the drawing). A 
god, much like Ramman-Martu but holding a crook instead of a scepter, occupies 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: BABYLONIAN TYPES. ra 


the full length of the cylinder. In this cylinder, while the design and figures are 
copied from the Babylonian art, the facture and style of engraving are not at all 
Babylonian but peculiarly Syro-Hittite. 

As we have seen in Chapter x1 that Gilgamesh is often represented holding 
a spouting vase, so he is shown also on the Syro-Hittite cylinders. One such example 
is given in fig. 835. ‘The streams appear to rise from his shoulders, but in Baby- 
lonian art his two hands hold the vase against his breast. A female attendant god- 
dess holds a distaff on each side of him, while the Hittite eagle becomes rather an 
Egyptian vulture and is engraved both above and below a guilloche. Similarly 
in fig. 836 the vase is still not drawn. On each side of the god is the winged com- 
posite figure, part man and part bull, and the field is filled with two stars, two hands, 
a head, a fish, a bird, an ibex, and a lion. Gilgamesh is duplicated, reduced, and 
kneeling, in fig. 837, where we have a flounced goddess (not bearded, but with 
divergent strands of a necklace). She holds a rod and ring, with points. Before 
her is a worshiper and behind her the figure of Aa-Shala. It is noticeable that 
the bull above is humped. There are two small figures of Gilgamesh kneeling, 
with a spouting vase and the guilloche. The figure with a spouting vase from which 
the streams fall into another vase in fig. 838 appears to be feminine, and another 





838 37 
uncertain goddess faces her, while a male worshiper stands behind the first goddess. 
The remaining portion is in three registers; a winged sphinx attacking an ibex 
over a guilloche, which is over a lion and the head of an ibex. 

The figure of Eabani is not at all common on these cylinders, although we 
might suppose that the winged man-bull which we have seen was derived from the 
idea of Eabani. But perhaps we can see him in fig. 839, where he is symmetrically 
duplicated on each side of an altar or stand, under the sun in the crescent. Eabani 
has a rather long garment and bull’s ears and in one case flattened horns; and in 
both figures his head seems to be surmounted by the handle of a crux ansata. He 
is followed on one side by a female figure holding the crux ansata, and on the other 
by a similar symmetric figure except that the narrow space does not allow room 
for the crux ansata. Back of these two figures is a guilloche with a sphinx above 
it and an ibex beneath it. 

More Assyrian than Babylonian in style is fig. 840, where a hero, or god, 
attacks an ibex, while in the space where in Babylonian cylinders might be expected 
three lines of inscription there is a vertical row of heads, then a guilloche, and 
then a peculiar column or ashera, with a conventional human head, draped above 
and behind, such as forms one of the characters in the Hittite inscriptions. 

Rather frequent on Hittite cylinders is the figure of the Ramman-Martu of 
the Babylonian cylinders, hardly to be separated from the Hittite vested god. We see 
him in fig. 842. Opposite and also behind the god stands Shala, his wife, duplicated 


symmetrically, and the worshiper is also duplicated. Besides three animals to fill 


278 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


the vacant spaces, there are two griffins over a guilloche, under which are a lion and 
an ibex. The same Ramman-Martu appears in fig. 841, a cylinder from the Hauran, 
which contains a Babylonian inscription, a winged genius, a bird, and a crux ansata. 
It is clearly Ramman-Martu and his wife Shala that we see in fig. 843. With them 
is another god holding the bident thun- 
derbolt, who would thus be indicated as 
Ramman-Adad, but who must be differ- 
entiated from the Ramman-Martu. He 
has the long garment of Shamash, and 
rests his foot on a lion or dragon. In the 
field are the sun in crescent, the crux ansata, a scorpion, a head in profile, and the 
head of Belit. The filiary inscription is in honor of the god Adad. 

Among other Babylonian gods we find Shamash, with his foot on a conventional 
mountain, in fig. 844. He accompanies Ramman-Martu and Aa-Shala. The 
guilloche appears with a sphinx above it attacking a doe, and below it a griffin 
threatening a gazelle. Shamash also is the only god recognizable in fig. 845, which 
is from a cylinder probably of this class and crowded with figures in two registers. 
Three figures approach Shamash, and two more, with vases, approach a seated 
deity. In the lower register are various men and animals. 











Occasionally Marduk appears on a Hittite cylinder, but not often. We have 
such a case in fig. 846. But in fig. 847 Marduk, if it be he, carries a waving serpent 
instead of the scimitar which was developed out of a different kind of a serpent, 
of the thick-necked asp character. Before him is the conventional goddess of the 
Aa-Shala type, and behind him, facing the three registers—a sphinx over a guilloche, 
over two lions—is a female figure with the peculiar garment or veil back of her 
head, which is characteristically non-Babylonian. 

The cylinder shown in fig. 848 is from the Hauran, and so Syro-Hittite, although 
few of the figures vary from the Babylonian forms. The two registers are not sepa- 
rated by any line. In the upper register is a seated goddess with a worshiper, also 
Shamash (with no stool for his foot) and two worshipers. In the lower register is 
a worshiper before a lion seizing a man, and a worshiper before two symmetric 
gazelles facing a tree. We may presume that the cylinder shown in fig. 845 is of 
the same period, as also that in fig. 849, which shows in the upper register a crowded 
succession of gods and emblems and in the lower the man-fish and various animals. 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: BABYLONIAN TYPES. 279 


In Chapter xxix attention will be called to an apparently feminine seated 
deity, who is to be compared with the Ma, or Rhea, who, we know, was wor- 
shiped in later times. In the following cases we have such a seated goddess, 
but the style is frankly Babylonian, while there are other indications that they 
were engraved in a more northern region. In fig. 850 we have the “libra” in 
front of the goddess, and there is a dove as well as a lion over the crossed ibexes. 
Another example of this seated goddess is shown in fig. 851, where the seated apes 
(with short tails) before the goddess show Egyptian influence. 

Occasionally the goddess in whom we have seemed to recognize Zirbanit 
appears, as in fig. 852, with Ramman-Martu. Here, as in the later and western 
art, the breasts and navel are carefully drawn, which is not to be expected in the 
genuinely Babylonian art. The Hittite character appears in the remaining three 
registers, where over the guilloche are to be seen a sphinx, a kneeling figure holding 
a column, another holding a fish by a string, and under the guilloche two winged 


WN 


ee 


INAV 


ae 


vest 












7} 















LS 


AVC 
iF 











NS 


851 
dragons and an ibex suckling its young. Unfortunately, the heads in the upper regis- 
ters are worn. ‘The peculiar figures seem to be presenting offerings to the gods. We 
have an attractive cylinder in 853, where a goddess, probably, is faced by a worshiper 
carrying a handsome vase by the handle. Aa-Shala faces Adad, and other objects 
are the sun in crescent, a monkey, a bird, an ibex, a griffin, and perhaps a jackal. 

It is by no means to be assumed that cylinders with a predominant Babylonian 
influence prove always an earlier period of use. While from very early times, 
probably as ancient as Sargon the Elder, cylinders began to come into use as far 
west as the Syrian coast, and even in Cyprus, they would also, even to a late period, 
and after the Egyptian invasions, be still closely affected by the Babylonian control, 
and many individuals would worship the Babylonian gods. But it is remarkable 
that we see so little of what we may distinguish as Assyrian influence. In a more 
general study of the Syro-Hittite art we would have to include the great number 
of more purely native seals, not cylinders, but of various shapes, made usually of soft 
serpentine and rudely engraved, and which seem to have been in use coexistently 
with the cylinders from a very early period. But that would open a wide field not 
yet properly investigated. Several of the finer ones, in hematite, we have considered 
in Chapter XLII. 


CHAPTER XLVI. 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: THE LOWER WORLD. 


Several elaborate cylinders seem beyond reasonable doubt to present to us 
scenes in the underworld. There is very little in the Babylonian art that we can 
definitely connect with the underworld. We have one such scene in the conquest 
of Allat by Nergal, described in Chapter xxi. But the Egyptian influence with 
its predominant mythology of the future life must have profoundly influenced all 
the region that submitted to its rule in the middle of the second chiliad B. C., how- 
ever much the native mythology may have modified the Egyptian ideas. 

An earlier discussion of these cylinders will be found in my article, “ Hittite 
Gods in Hittite Art,’ “American Journal of Archzxology,” 1899, pp. 1-39. The 
first of them to be considered is shown in fig. 854. In the upper register is a seated 
deity, bearded, flounced, holding in his hand what looks like a branch, but which 
may be meant for a spouting vase, from which or about 
which flow two streams. Before him stands an attend- 
ant having two faces, like Janus Bifrons, one directed 

aeexoei forward to the deity and the other backward to the 
—=—-—| figure which follows. This, as explained correctly by 
Ménant, is a mere conventional device to indicate that 
this attendant, whom we may call the psychopomp, 
keeps watch on the following figure while reverent 
towards the deity. Accordingly, one hand is lifted towards the god and the other 
is extended towards the figure behind him. ‘This bifrons figure is borrowed from 
the earlier Babylonian art, where it occasionally appears, as in figs. 291, 294, 297. 
Behind the psychopomp is a figure, apparently a soul of the dead brought to the 
deity for judgment. He stands in an attitude of profound respect and is followed 
by five figures, of which the three first might be apparitors attending or guarding 
the soul, or assessors assisting the god who sits in judgment. The character of 
these three attendants is better seen in figs. 855, 857, where their headdresses are 
better preserved. The fifth figure behind the bifrons is not definitely characterized. 
The sixth, and last, is the usual form of a goddess consort, whether of Shamash or 
Adad. She might well be the wife of the seated god. ‘The lower register gives us 
another scene in the lower world. ‘The same soul whom we have seen presented 
for judgment in the upper register here stands to the right of a palm-tree, and four 
composite creatures approach, one kneeling and the others presenting food. The 
two registers are separated by an elaborate Hittite guilloche. 

The next cylinder (fig. 855), also of hematite, is said to have come from Aidin 
in Lydia and belongs to the Louvre. This is not a pierced cylinder of the ordinary 
style, but of the shape somewhat affected among the Hittites, in which one end is 
reduced and extended to form a handle, which is pierced transversely (fig. 8552). 
In this case the handle is partly broken off. The other end has the Hittite inscription 
(fig. 8555). It has the same elaborate guilloche as in fig. 854 and another of spirals. 

280 











SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: THE LOWER WORLD. 281 


The Hittite deity, apparently beardless, sits in a high-backed chair. Before the 
deity are two upright lions. The objects above them are not clear, and differ from 
the corresponding boat on the next cylinder (fig. 857) and also on the Boghaz-keui 
procession. Then we see the two-faced psychopomp, followed by three figures, each 
with the Hittite “lituus,” or more likely a serpent (see fig. 855a). Another scene shows 
a seated goddess with a winged attendant spirit on each side, a curious half-kneeling 
figure apparently surrounded by streams, indicated by the fish, and lifting his head 
as if to drink. Before him stands a figure, apparently with streams from his hand. 

The third cylinder (fig. 857) is so closely allied to the last that M. Salomon 
Reinach, who has described and figured it in the Revue Archéologique, Mai- Juin, 
1898, says it must have come from the same atelier. It now belongs to the Boston 
Museum of Fine Arts. It is of the same shape and has the same guilloche patterns 
as the last cylinder. Before the god seated in a chair are the two upright lions 
holding a boat of the coracle or kufa style. It is recognized as a boat, and not a 
crescent, by what seems to be a figure in it and an oar. On the other side of these 
lions stands the two-faced figure, with three figures approaching, each with a 
“lituus,” two of them, as in fig. 855, in flounced skirts, and the third in a shorter 





garment. The rest of the cylinder is occupied by another and very extraordinary 
scene not figured on any other known cylinder. On a table or bier lies a human 
figure, apparently in the tall Hittite hat and with the Hittite short-ribbed garment. 
From his body rise three lines which seem to represent fire. At the foot and head 
of the bier stands a man in a short skirt, and a woman, perhaps, in a long garment. 
Below, covering half the circumference of the cylinder, is a series of vases, animal 
heads, etc., which can hardly represent anything else than the provision of food 
for the dead. Lying prone among them and grasping an object in his hand, is a 
naked figure, not easy to explain, although it may possibly represent the figure of 
the dead taking the food. Other figures, having no definite relation to these two 
principal scenes, are the small figure of the naked goddess with skirt withdrawn 
which we shall consider (Chapter L) standing over a lion or a bull, and the armed 
god with his foot on a victim, familiar on Babylonian cylinders, who represents 
Hadad and the destructive forces of nature. There is also the peculiar kneeling 
figure with head upturned and hands raised, which we saw in fig. 855. In this 
case there is a vase above his head with water apparently flowing from it, which 
reminds one of the prayer addressed in the underworld to its queen Allat, “O god- 
dess, may Suchalziku give me water” (Jensen, “Kosmologie,” p. 233). 

That the heads, vases, and tripod figured in this seal represent food for the 
dead is proved by the remarkable funerary bronze tablet (fig. 856) described by 
M. Clermont Ganneau (L’Enfer Assyrien, Rev. Arch., xxxviul, plate xxv; also 


282 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Perrot and Chipiez, Hist. de l’Art Chald. et Ass., fig. 162), where we have the dead 
laid out on a bier (but without flames), an attendant spirit (fish-god) at the head 
and foot, and other objects in the register representing this world, while just below, 
in the register representing the lower world, are vases, a tripod, feet of animals 
(not heads), and haunches (?) or provision for the dead. We see from fig. 854 that 
the monsters of the lower world are not wholly malicious, but may be kindly attend- 
ants, bringing food to the dead. The three personages with “lituus,’’ who approach 
the seated goddess in figs. 855 and 856, it is not easy to explain satisfactorily. They 
are the same that look like apparitors following the soul in fig. 854. Their attitude, 
with one hand raised, 1s one of profound respect; and they are therefore not gods, 
notwithstanding an apparent crescent over the 
headdress of one of them. Yet the presence 
of the headdress is not usual for human beings 
in such an approach. ‘They hardly represent 
the multitudes that enter the realm of Allat 
Ninkigal. The “lituus,” as well as the head- 
dress, indicates a dignity like that of a king. 
They may correspond to the assessors in the 
Egyptian scenes of the judgment of the dead, 
and to Minos, Rhadamanthus, and A®acus in 
Greek mythology. 

At any rate, we are brought in these three 
seals into the realm of the lower world. We 
see the judgment, in two cases by Shamash, 
with his familiar streams, or by some similar 
western god; in another we see the dead laid 
on his bier, prepared for cremation, and the 
provision for his food in the other world. In 
two we seem to see one of the dead lifting his 
head and hands to drink; in one a dead per- 
son appeared to be seizing food; and we may 
conjecture that the boat with a person in it, supported by such lion-headed 
creatures as we also see on the bronze funerary plate described by M. Ganneau, 
may have something to do with the passage of the soul. 

In this connection attention may be called to a cylinder shown in fig. 858, which 
shows strong Egyptian influence and which may well be related to the scenes in 
the underworld. Before a purely Babylonian bearded and flounced god, except 
that he holds up the crux ansata, stands a worshiper in Babylonian style, except 
that there are bands across his inner garment and he holds an antelope or ibex by 
the hind leg instead of a goat in his arms. Above them is the winged disk with asps. 
Behind the god are two registers. “The upper one shows two winged genii, one with 
an ibex head and the other with the head of a bull, carrying a deer slung on a pole, 
while the one in advance holds a rabbit in his hand, and a vulture rests on the 
forward end of the pole. In the lower register are two human figures, who carry 
an ibex slung from a pole, while in front is an ibex recumbent, and behind is the 
head of a goat. The composite, winged figures carrying food can hardly represent 
any scenes in this life and may be supposed to be connected with such provision 


en A area 
Magne fa Foe oe LO Role 
“Witiinnmimuntih 








SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: THE LOWER WORLD. 283 


for the future life as we know was familiar to the Egyptians. The meaning of the 
design, then, is that the owner worships the god with offerings in this world and 
is assured of all needed blessings beyond the grave. We may have the same thought 
expressed in 859, where the worshiper, an owner, is protected behind by a winged 
figure with a bird’s head and is separated by the winged disk from a human-headed 


TOLD. AD 
DODRDRODRD | 


OLOLOL) 


WH YUH WOH 


aie 











857 858 

and an animal-headed figure, who bring him animals for food, probably in the 
other world. The Egyptian influence is strong in this cylinder from the Hauran. 

Attention should be called to fig. 860, also from the Hauran. The upper register 
shows two lions seated and facing each other, with one paw raised over a human 
head; also an eagle, a fish, and a small animal. The lower register has three 
beardless figures supporting on their shoulders a long pole from which three ibexes 
hang suspended by their feet tied together. We can not be sure, that this repre- 
sents provision for the dead in the lower world, but it much resembles fig. 858. 

The value of these cylinders is —_—y - 
that they prove to us the rele SEA met S(Ce' f (Gee Me 
beyond the valley of the Nile of a U1 Ag NY oS : 
faith in the future life, in a judg- 
ment of the dead according to their 
deeds while in the body, and in the . TT nn 
abundant provision for the happy dead in the other world. We seem to have an 
indication that the god of Hades had three assessors who assisted him or attended 
to the spirit that was judged, and it is not at all unlikely that the Greeks drew from 
the Ionian coast their mythology which added three assessors or judges, Minos, 
/Eacus, and Rhadamanthus, to the aid of Pluto, the ruler and judge of the lower 
world, and thus got it at second hahd from the Egyptians. And again we are sur- 
prised that the Hebrews avoided the doctrine of the future life. It would seem to 
be because it was so controlling in the Egyptian religion; and in order to resist and 
escape the polytheism connected with it the Hebrews rejected the doctrine of the 
future life entirely, so that it is not clearly referred to in the Old Testament until 
the doctrine was cleansed of its polytheism by the Persians and had been adopted 
by the Jews at the time the book of Daniel was written. 











CHAPTER XLVI. 


THE HITTITE VESTED GOD. 


At the head of the left-hand procession of Hittite deities at Boghaz-keui (fg. 
776), meeting the goddess in the opposite procession, is a god of commanding 
stature with his feet resting on the heads of two subjected human figures. He 1s 
otherwise distinguished from the gods that follow him only by his prominent posi- 
tion as head of the procession and by his height. He carries no special weapon, 
only in his left hand the club, carried also by others, and the ax in his girdle. He 
is dressed like them in a short garment and a tall, pointed hat. Before his body 
is seen the front portion of the high-hatted animal which seems meant to character- 

durrus. He is evidently a 






\ 861 65 866 
Hittite god of special dignity and authority. No god precisely like him is seen on 
the Hittite seals, but we seem compelled to identify with him a principal deity, 
who appears to have particular dignity, but carries no especial emblem. This 
god we have already seen in figs. 794 and 797, and shall see him further, as in figs. 
924 to 926, in company with the naked goddess. He appears in numerous other 
seals. Such a one is fig. 861, where we see the cuneiform designation for god imme- 
diately behind the god’s head. Here the god in a long robe, with a queue and a 
high, pointed hat, faces the goddess 1n a square hat such as is worn by the goddess 
and her female followers on the bas-relief of Boghaz-keui. The god’s right hand 
is raised, and the goddess holds a vase in her right hand. Behind the god is a wor- 
shiper. There is a crux ansata to the left of each of the deities, and between them 
are two crescents. ‘This is a cylinder that might deceive careless examination. 
Between the two lines of inscription a line appears to have been erased and replaced 
by a sort of column surmounted by a lotus, surmounted in turn by a Hittite eagle. 
It would appear that this was an earlier Babylonian cylinder which was recut with 
Hittite figures and emblems. It is to be observed that the Hittite eagle takes the 
place of the expected winged disk. 

A similar design, but finer and more elaborate, we have in fig. 862. The square- 
hatted goddess again holds a vase, and behind her is a female worshiper, while 

284 


THE HITTITE VESTED GOD. 285 


behind the god is a procession of three figures, like those following the god at Boghaz- 
keui, inclosed above and below by guilloches. 

Occasionally the goddess takes the familiar style of the Babylonian Aa or 
Shala. Such a case appears in fig. 863. Between the god and goddess we have 
such a column or tree as was seen in fig. 861 surmounted by the lotus and eagle. 
Here it is surmounted by an extended winged disk. The procession follows the 
goddess, and above the three figures are a sphinx and an ibex over not a guilloche 
but a spiral. It is to be considered whether the spiral is not older than the guilloche 
and the origin of it. Another cylinder similar to the last is shown in fig. 864. Here 
the god seems to carry a weapon, perhaps sickle-shaped, in his left hand. There 
is a second couple of figures, a worshiper before a second god, or perhaps the same. 
There is a guilloche above and below. 

In a considerable number of cases this god is duplicated for symmetry. One 
such we see in fig. 865. [he two figures of the god face each other, and between 
them is a winged disk, over a small naked figure and a bird with two long horns. 
Behind the god to the left is a standing female figure, and before her is a “libra.” 
The remaining space is filled by the frequent Hittite heraldic eagle, but with the 
Egyptian vulture’s long neck; under which is a guilloche, over a humped ox. The 
humped ox was introduced at a comparatively late period. 
In fig. 866 again we have the god duplicated. Between 
the two figures are the winged disk, a vase, and a naked 
seated figure. Behind the right-hand god are a two- 
handled vase over a column and a female figure who may 
be a goddess. We then have, in the remaining space, a 
sphinx over a guilloche, over a lion. In fig. 867, between the two symmetrical 
figures of the god is the sun in a crescent (taking the place of the winged disk) 
over a one-handled vase, over a column. Behind the right-hand god, but separated 
by an eagle over a crux ansata, is a female figure, perhaps a goddess. In the 
remaining space we have a different combination. Under the guilloche are a 
seated goddess holding a vase, and a standing female figure before her, with two 
flattened horns over her head, such as we see in Egyptian figures of deities. 

An elaborate instance of thjs deity repeated for symmetry we see in fig. 868. 
Here, as in figs. 861 and 863, the winged disk is over a column. In the remaining 
space there are three registers. In the upper are four rosettes; in the middle one 
are two wingless sphinxes; and in the lower one a man kneels before a lion. 
Next to the kneeling figure is another small sitting figure with a bird-like head, 
which the right-hand god seizes by the hand. This is an entirely unique feature. 
In fig. 869, between the two figures of the god, is an ibex head over a hand, a rather 
rare emblem. Behind the god stands the naked goddess, with a branch, or ear 
of wheat, before her. Two bull-headed human figures face each other, with a deer’s 
head between them, and above is the sun in the crescent. In fig. 870, a much ruder 
and probably earlier cylinder, we have perhaps the same god repeated before a 
palm-tree. He has the same hat, but the older, flounced garment. The hat seems 
to indicate a god rather than a goddess. A fine cylinder is shown in fig. 871. Here 
the god stands on each side of the column, which we may regard as a variation of 
the “sacred tree,” the trunk of a palm, with the upper, curled leaves developing 
into the Ionic column. Above it is the winged disk. One god holds in one hand 





286 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


an interesting object, a sort of scepter, with a looped cord near the top, while the 
other holds a pitcher. On one side of the column is a scorpion, and on the other 
a “libra.” The remaining design has a braided guilloche, below which are two 
lion-headed sphinxes wearing a square crown, and above is Adad facing Ishtar, 
while behind the goddess is a fish. The goddess holds a lion in her arm, and the 
god holds a rod, on the top of which may be a bird, or it may possibly be an ax. 

We seem to have this same god represented in the elaborate cylinder shown 
in fig. 872, although the hat is shorter than usual. Before the god is a small, naked 
kneeling figure and a larger standing worshiper, perhaps; and behind him a small 
nude figure and the full-length figure of the goddess Aa or Shala. In the large 
space are three registers, a procession of four small figures in the upper one; in 
the second a guilloche; and in the lower a “libra” and a griffin mounted on a lion. 
The smaller spaces are crowded with the sun in the crescent, a head, a scorpion, 
and two birds. 

In fig. 873 the god holds a club, or ax, and before him is a winged deity or 
genius holding a staff, while behind the god is the Babylonian goddess Aa. ‘There 


Bhi) See 
LS FORMANCE 3 





are the sun in crescent, a star, and in the remaining space an uncertain object 
over a guilloche and a procession of three small figures. A cylinder much similar 
is seen in fig. 874, but we have the god Teshub in place of the god we are considering. 
We have treated this god as unarmed, but in fig. 875 it appears to be this god 
who carries an ax and holds a prisoner by the hair. He is repeated symmetrically 
opposite and still carries the ax, but without the prisoner. Between the two is a 
winged disk with a bird, and in the remaining space the three registers are occupied 
by two symmetrical lions over a guilloche and a procession of four small figures, 
precisely like the one that is seized by the god. ‘This seems to indicate that the 
procession that frequently follows the god does not represent worshipers or soldiers 
as much as captives. 

That this is a principal god is clear, but what name should be given to him is 
by no means equally clear. Inasmuch as the Syro-Hittite deities were interrelated 
with those of Babylonia and Assyria, we are naturally led to ask the question what 
Babylonian god may possibly be identified with this deity; and perhaps we have 
not far to seek. There is one Babylonian god who in his attitude and his lack of 
symbols much resembles this one. Further than this, he was known as Martu, 
god of the West. He differs from the god we are considering in carrying a short 


THE HITTITE VESTED GOD. 287 


scepter in his left hand, held against his body, and in the shortened headdress. We 
see him in the usual Babylonian style in fig. 876, but the accessories are purely 
Syro-Hittite in the latter case. Between the two symmetrical figures of the god 
is the heraldic Hittite eagle over, not a tall column as seen in figs. 861, 863, 867, 
but a shorter altar. Behind the left-hand figure of the god is the female worshiper, 
or goddess, carrying what may be a spindle, and between them is the crux ansata. 
In the remaining space is a bird, over a guilloche and an ibex and a slender vase. 
Another cylinder, also said to be from the Hauran, is seen in fig. 877, where the god 
carries in one hand a spear and in the other a club and a boomerang. ‘The vested 
goddess opposite also has the club and boomerang. ‘There are an altar with cakes, 
a columnar altar, the winged disk; also a griffin and an ibex over a guilloche, which 


> 7 Pad % 





"87R 874 815 

is over an ibex. It is not at all unlikely that the Babylonians, at a period succeeding 
Gudea—for, as we have shown in Chapter xxxI, this god was introduced from the 
west and was not original in Babylonia—found this to be a principal god among 
the deities they met in their raids towards the Mediterranean, and called him “God 
of the West,” Martu, Ramman, or Adad. And yet he is not the real Adad; that 
is another god, also borrowed from the West, the god with hand uplifted holding 
the thunderbolt or other weapon and leading a bull by a cord, also familiar in both 
the Syro-Hittite art and in that of Babylonia, following the period of Gudea. 
These two gods seem confused in Babylonian thought, and we have found it difficult 
to separate them, however separated completely in their representation. 

I have wished that it were pos- 
sible to call the god with the bull 
and thunderbolt Adad, and give the 
name of Ramman to the god vath 
right hand withdrawn and left hand 
holding the scepter to his breast, 
and who is called Martu. If we 
have no clear evidence as to what name he bore among the Syro-Hittites, we may 
presume that he is very likely Tarkhu, or Sandu, in the West, or, even more likely, 
Khaldis, the principal god of Van, while in Syria he would be identical with 
Baal. In the Egyptian representation of the Syrian trinity the Hittite goddess 
Kadesh stands on a lioness (or panther) between the two gods, Min (or Amsu) 
and Resheph. In Resheph we recognized Adad, and in Min we may perhaps 
recognize our standing vested god, modified to suit the Egyptian taste. He stands 
upright, nude and ithyphallic. 





CHAPTER XLVIII. 


TESHUB. 


We have found in Chapter xxx the Babylonian Adad to be differently repre- 
sented from the Babylonian Ramman-Martu. He is a god with a short garment 
and holding a weapon over his head with one hand, while the other may lead a 
bull by a cord in its nose. A similar god is a principal deity in the Syro-Hittite 
art, yet not so generally associated with the bull. Sometimes the bull is given, as 
in fig. 878. This is marked as Hittite by the general type and by the crux ansata. 
The inscription, as read by Winckler, shows it to have belonged to one Akhlib-sar. 
The god holds the bull by a cord and is heavily armed. The weapon in his left 
hand is very peculiar, as if it were an asymmetrical bow. Such a weapon is fig- 
ured as Asianic by W. Max Miller (“Asien und Europa,” p. 303); and, as 
von Luschan says (see Winckler in Mitt. d. Vorderas. Gesellschaft, 1896, 4, p 
1g), such bows are in use in the New Hebrides. The 
cast shows the bow to be asymmetric, but it is possible 
that this appearance is due to bad drawing caused by the 
crowding. ‘There is a worshiper in a square hat, with 
a vase in his hand, and a third figure who is a goddess’s 
attendant. ‘he interest of this cylinder is especially in 
the inscription: 

Akhlib- sar 
Servant of Adad 


But instead of “Adad” we should probably read Teshub, 
as the corresponding Hittite name of the god. As Winck- 

“a ler says, this cylinder appears to be of the middle of the 
second chiliad 1B oh aT name Akhlib-sar is parallel to such other Hittite names 
as Haleb-sar and Cheta-sar, names of Hittite kings. 

Very much in the same style is fig. 879. Here the god, like Adad (but we may 
give him the name of the Hittite god Teshub), wears the same short garment with 
its transverse lines of folds, or embroidery, the same peculiar helmet with its sharp 
peak, and with his queue hanging down his back, as in the Hittite figures in Egyp- 
tian representations of Hittite soldiers. In his right hand he lifts his club and in 
his left he carries an ax and an asymmetrical bow, while by the same hand he leads 
a bull by a cord. Opposite him stands a beardless worshiper, and between them 
are the seven dots, the sun in crescent, a dove, and a crux ansata, emblem of life. 
Under the worshiper is the guilloche, but in this case it is not as a twisted rope, 
nor braided, but in reéntrant curves. This may be regarded as a very early and 
original form of the guilloche and is very rare in Hittite art. The inscription 1s 
of the ordinary filiary character, and the owner is a worshiper of the god Teshub. 
This cylinder would appear to belong to a period not later than the middle of 
the second chiliad B.C. To much the same period we may assign fig. 880, where 

288 





TESHUB. 289 


the god holds his club, asymmetric bow, and ax, and opposite him is a female 
figure, probably a goddess, in a high, square hat. “Two figures of Gilgamesh face 
each other, holding in their hands a spouting vase, the streams of which make 
two arches about them. Between them is a scorpion. Yet another of similar style 
and period is seen in fig. 881. In this the upper and lower part are concealed by 
the heavy gold mounting. ‘The god holds an ax or club above his head with his 
right hand and grasps a bow and an ax with his left hand. Before him a bearded 
flounced deity raises a spouting vase in his right hand, one stream of which falls 
past two fishes to the ground, while a second stream flows to a second vase in his 
left hand, from which another stream falls behind him to the ground. Behind this 
flounced god is an antelope, over a hare, a bird, and a scorpion. ‘There are three 
lines of filiary inscription. 

Closely related also is fig. 882. Here T’eshub-Adad stands on a prostrate 
victim. In one hand he lifts a club and in the other holds his ax. Before him a 
god or warrior holds a bow by each hand, over his shoulders. A third figure is like 


=p TW 
ic “EG mez (AV Nite 
IWSA\(Be lz ul 
ten fe a yi 
S Ir 
| 








the Babylonian Martu, and there is a vertical guilloche and the sun is in a cres- 
cent. In these seals the sun is*simply a circle with no cross lines inserted. In fig. 
883 the god stands on mountains and has a weapon in each hand, a club and an 
ax. Before him is the goat’s head which has been supposed to be the emblem of 
Tarkhu. The naked goddess who is shown in Chapter LI stands on her bull. There 
are two processions of eight small figures, one led by a somewhat larger figure, 
while before the other is a seated figure holding a vase. There is a guilloche, also 
the sun in a crescent and a small bird. The eight small figures have been recognized 
by Hommel (Memnon, 1, pp. 83-85) as the Egyptian Ogdoad attached to the sun- 
god. To the same class of cylinders belongs fig. 884. The god seems to be 
Adad-Teshub, except that his weapon is not lifted over his head; he carries a not 
wholly symmetrical bow in his left hand, while his right falls behind him. There 
falls from his shoulder what might be taken for his queue, if it were not so very long, 
almost to his ankles. It can hardly be a shield, as we see on comparing with the 
figure of the other god. A worshiper stands before him. The other deity also has 
the doubtful queue from his shoulder. He wears the same short garment as does 
Teshub, but also a second longer one that covers his knee. In his left hand he 
19 


290 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


holds a shield (or possibly bow), and he has a curved weapon an his right, some- 
thing like the scimitar of Marduk, with whom he may be assimilated. Before him 
stands a figure, probably a goddess, in a high, square hat. The only emblem isa star. 

Another cylinder in which this god carries the bow is shown in fig. 886. On 
his shoulder he bears a long club, or spear, and his helmet seems to have a sort of 
plume. To be sure, it may be that this is not the same god, but it probably is, 
although he wears with the short garment a longer one falling in a sort of fringe. 
There are three other figures, one behind the god, in the dress and attitude of the 
goddess Aa; another, a god in a high hat and with flounced garment, holding a 
spear; and a third female figure crowned with the Egyptian solar disk and asp and 
holding, perhaps, a vase in the left hand. A star and a crux ansata are in the field. 

Apparently of about the same period is fig. 885. Here the god, in his usual 
attitude and holding a weapon in each hand, stands on two mountains. The 
object in his left hand may be taken for a lotus. Before him stands another god, 
perhaps, and behind him an attendant goddess. The fourth figure, behind Adad- 
Teshub, is apparently the soldier-owner of the seal, with his spear in one hand and 
a lance, perhaps, in the other. 

















sii 


S 


Ly < 2 
CS N 
as 

Senos UH \ 









eee Sule 891 
: 889 

animal, and the sun in the crescent. ‘This cylinder is interesting for comparison 
with the figures at Boghaz-keui. ‘The god also stands on mountains in fig. 887, 
holding a spear and an ax, while a worshiper and the goddess stand before him. 
Another very interesting cylinder is shown in fig. 888. “The god, with his helmet and 
his long queue, holds an uncertain weapon in his /eft hand behind his head, and 
in the right an ax and another uncertain object which hardly seems to be the upper 
part of a bow, or, with its small circles, to be a lotus with bent stem, as was suggested 
in the previous figure. But in this seal the goddess in the square hat, holding a 
vase, seems to be the principal figure, for it is before her that the worshiper stands. 
The object before her, under the rosette of seven dots and the star, is not to be 
taken for the tree of life, but is the cuttle-fish, not often seen on the cylinders, but 
occasionally, as in fig. 798, and showing that the design had close relation to the 
Island and Mycenzan culture. There is also a seated monkey. Such a monkey 
we may see perched on a pole, or column, as if it were a sort of ashera, in fig. 889, 
which probably belongs to this same Syro-Hittite cycle of art and culture, although 
the distinctively Hittite motifs are not so characteristic. Adad stands on his bull, 
while holding it by a cord. ‘The seated god with the approaching figures, the star 
and the crescent, are quite Babylonian in style, but this cylinder was found in the 
Hauran and Is associated with other more distinctively Syro-Hittite seals. 


TESHUB. 291 


We may fairly presume that it is the same god Adad whom we see in fig. 890, 
although the hats of the two figures are different and seem to follow a more Egyptian 
pattern. Allowing for possible error in Lajard’s drawing, the god carries two rods in 
his right hand and over his left shoulder is an ax. There is a crux ansata, and a 
sphinx over two figures constituting the procession. 

With the god there may appear a winged figure, which we may call a subordi- 
nate genius. Such we see in fig. 891. The genius holds a spear, and the god a bow 
and an ax. There is a goddess holding perhaps a lotus, and also two scorpions 
and a guilloche. Equally in fig. 892 the winged genius holds a spear in one hand 
and in the other an uncertain weapon. His helmet is the same as that of Adad- 
Teshub, and we observe the additional longer garment worn under the short trans- 










v\ S Mz, 
WBZ & 
LS WOVNY 72 
y} yy Q, 
TIEN LY Dy 2 





verse one. Teshub carries a club in his left hand, but the weapon in his right hand 
is lost in the rubbing of the seal. Before him kneels a conquered enemy, and a 
worshiper stands with raised hands. Two small branches complete the scene. 
Yet another such combination we have in fig. 893. The winged genius, who looks 
much like a goddess without the longer garment, carries a javelin in one hand and 
a spear in the other. Teshub faces her with a club, or ax, in one hand and a curved 
weapon in the other. A small naked figure in the attitude of worship stands before 
a figure of the flounced Aa. There are two birds, which might be doves or ravens, and 
a crux ansata. Another good example we have in fig. 894, the winged gentus, in the 
longer skirt, wearing the feminine, square hat, so that we may take it to be a goddess, 
divine or semi-divine. She carries the longer spear and the shorter javelin. The 





god Teshub, with his club and his curved weapon, is more generously clad than 
usual and his helmet is adorned apparently with a crescent. The god facing him 
also carries a similar curved weapon, perhaps a bow, and also an ax. There is a 
smaller worshiper, who may be feminine. There is also a crux ansata. 

In this connection it is well to call attention to the cylinder shown in fig. 895, 
the genuineness of which may be in doubt, but which is so elaborate and peculiar 
that it is sure to attract attention. There are certain questionable peculiarities 
about it. It is in the best of condition, so far as the design is concerned, although 
the ends are so worn that the border lines are gone. The main god Teshub, standing 
on two mountains, is clad in evident armor. While the attitude of the god, swinging 
an enemy by the hair, is absolutely unique, that fact is not conclusive against its 
genuineness. The hat of the worshiping figure before the god, carrying a hare, 


292 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


is very peculiar, with the circle in the crescent above it. But with this may be 
compared fig. 896, where the god in a running position, standing on an animal, 
swings an ibex by the horns over his head; below him is the guilloche. Another 
god stands holding a weapon, and a genius, with wings, lifts two ibexes by the 
hind leg. 

There can be no question that this god is to be identified, or at least related, 
to the Adad of the Assyrian pantheon. ‘They have the same general features and 
are connected, at times, with the same bull led by a cord. This god can be hardly 
any other than the warlike Teshub of Hittite worship. It would be interesting if 
we could settle whether the god has his origin in the Assyrian or in the Syro-Hittite 
region; probably in the latter. As he appears in the Babylonian art he seems to 
be of northern or western origin. He seems to be more at home, more characteristic 
and interrelated with the Hittite than with the Assyrian worship. While historically 
we have no definite knowledge of the Hittites, whether from Egyptian or Assyrian 
sources, until the period of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, there can be no doubt 
that a considerable civilization and art had preceded that period, and that a some- 
what compact civilization had long prevailed, affected both by the Babylonian on 
the one side and that of the Mediterranean coast on the other, but based on its 
own indigenous culture and religion; and the races represented by the Hittites 
gave to the Assyrians and Babylonians something, while they borrowed much. 

We may include in this chapter the cylinder shown in fig. 897 and which is 
mounted in gold caps. Here a god corresponding to Adad, or Teshub, stands on 
a bull and carries several clubs. Before the seated goddess, with her dove, stands 
a worshiper, probably female. There are also twohands. This is perhaps Cypriote. 

For Teshub in the form of a herm see fig. 1308. 

Characteristic of Teshub are his weapons, corresponding to the thunder- 
bolt borne by the Babylonian Adad, the mountains on which he stands, and the 
bull whose bellowing represents his thunder. ‘These attributes ally him to the 
Hebrew Yahwe. See Ward, “The Origin of the Worship of Yahwe,”’ American 
Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature, April, 1909. 


CHAPTER XLIX. 


THE SEATED SYRO-HITTITE GODDESS. 


There is a considerable number of cylinders which show us a seated deity, 
of more northern origin, usually to be recognized as a goddess. One such case 
we have seen in fig. 703, as also in figs. 781, 782. ‘This is to be expected, since we 
have found in the Assyrian mythology a prominent seated goddess who seems to 
be allied to the Earth Mother among the Greeks. Yet in the Syro-Hittite mythology 
the seated goddess bears no such prominent and distinctive part as we might 
have looked for. She seems to have no special function or duty; and we can not 
well identify any seated god, although in fig. 898 the peaked hat suggests the male 
sex. But we have seen in fig. 718, seq., a male seated deity, who is quite likely to 
have come from the large Syro-Hittite region. We have another case in fig. 719, the 
material of which, jade, suggests that it comes from the more northern or western 
region from which Chantre and others have brought celts of jade. Yet such celts 
as I have seen are of a less fine quality of jade than that of the jade cylinders. Here 
a seated flounced god holds a branch as scepter, and a worshiper offers a goat. A 
god on a bull carries an Egyptian scepter. He appears to be a form of Adad, and 





a second god, like Marduk, with a scimitar, also grasps the scepter. here is an 
evident Egyptian influence, ir» the headdress of the attendant behind the deity who 
carries a bird, as well as in the crux ansata. Before the deity are the winged disk, 
a star, a bird, and a worshiper; and above the guilloche is a winged animal, and 
below it a rabbit. 

We shall see in figs. 1024 to 1027 cases in which a deity holds a spouting vase. 
Such a vase is held in fig. 899 by a seated goddess, who is symmetrically repeated. 
The stream falls from the vase in her hand into a vase on the ground. Behind the 
duplicated goddess are four marching figures and an attendant worshiper. This 
fine cylinder has a lower register, in which two symmetric sphinxes face a star and 
a kneeling figure seizes the horn of a humped bull. We may infer from this cylinder 
that in some way the goddess was the guardian of the upper waters. 

Fig. goo is a cylinder of special value because we know its locality. It is of black 
serpentine and was found by Miss I. F. Dodd, of the Girls’ College in Constanti- 
nople, at Kil-tepe, near Casarea, in Cappadocia. It appears to be quite archaic. 
The two seated figures may be either male or female. They seem to be nude and 
each has a long queue, such as is worn by Hittite soldiers in the Egyptian figures of 

293 


294. SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Hittite battles. Each seems to be sucking the contents of a vase through a curved 
pipe. We have seen such a design in archaic Babylonian art, Chapter v, and in 
early Assyrian art, figs. 734 and 738. ‘There is also a man spearing an animal 
which may possibly be a lion, from its tail and its open mouth. ‘There are also 
a simple tree and what we may understand to be a crescent with three rays fall- 
ing from it. This may remind us of the disk worshiped by the Heretic King 
Khuenaten, of Egypt, with its rays ending in hands. 
There is also a small human figure. 
In fig. gor the goddess simply holds a vase. 
Before her is a crux ansata, which is embraced by 
‘the legs of a table on which are what we may sup- 
pose to be thin loaves of bread. Before the flounced 
goddess stands a male figure holding a spear with 
3 ws the point downward, and behind him is the flounced 
goddess, whom we recognize as Aa-Shala. ‘There are also two stars, a “libra,”’ and 
an ox’s head over a hand. Somewhat similar is fig. go3. The goddess, repeated 
symmetrically, holds in the hand an object not easy to recognize, perhaps the rem- 
iniscence of a lotus, and between them is a stand with loaves. Behind them are 
two symmetric figures facing each other, and there is a libra, also a hand and a cres- 
cent. We seem to discover that here, and elsewhere, the “libra” has a handle at the 
upper end. In one upper register there is a vase between two griffins facing each 
other and behind them is a guilloche. In fig. go4 the seated, flounced goddess holds 
the Egyptian lotus in her hand. Before her are a scorpion, a dove over an Ionic col- 
umn, and two female worshipers, while behind her are two rabbits. In fig. go2 the 
goddess holds a vase and before her is a bird; and a worshiper, repeated symmetri- 

















More peculiar is the cylinder shown in fig. 905, inasmuch as the seated goddess 
holds a serpent in her hand, the coil of which forms a ring by her long staff. Before 
her stands what is probably a female figure with an Egyptian headdress and hold- 
ing up what may be the papyrus blossom. In the remaining space, above a guilloche, 
a Hittite eagle grasps in his talons each side an uncertain object and below it is 
a running oryx. In fig. go6 the seated goddess holds towards the worshiper what 
is possibly a serpent scepter, perhaps a lotus. Before her is a hand and behind 
her stands an attendant with a spear. A rabbit, a guilloche, and a bird complete 
the design. Fig. 907 gives us a seated goddess with face in front view, although 
it might be easier to regard that it is a bearded god. She (or he) holds a vase in the 
hand, and above is a running rabbit. A worshiper holds a “libra,” and another is 
behind him, with a vase below, instead of above. The goddess whom we shall see 
in the next chapter under the arch, or half arch, we here see standing on her bull, 
and before her are a bird and a gazelle’s head. 


THE SEATED SYRO-HITTITE GODDESS. 295 


In fig. go8 the goddess holds a vase and under her seat is a lion. We can not 
be certain, however, that the lion has any special relation to the goddess. Before 
her is the sun in a crescent, resting over a column parted at the top; on one 
side of it is a bird and on the other an anmial, while a small figure stands in an 
attitude of worship each side of the column. A standing deity holds a scimitar, 
like that of Marduk, and before him (or her) is a worshiper, and between them a 





ie eee Re me 
bird over a monkey. In fig. gog the seated goddess holds the standard surmounted 
by the sun in the crescent and before her stands a worshiper perhaps. A standing 
deity, with Marduk’s scimitar, receives the worship of a standing and of a small 
kneeling figure. In fig. g10, before the seated goddess holding a vase are the sun in 
the crescent and a human head, and behind her is the double-headed eagle. The 


other objects are two crossed lions, a running gazelle, a rabbit, 
and a small head, all reversed. 

As to the interpretation of all these cylinders there is great 
doubt. I have presumed them to represent female deities, but 
the fact that male figures were usually beardless leaves room 
for question. In a single case (fig. 907), although the deity 
seemed bearded, I was inclined to think it might be meant to 
represent a necklace. One can hardly fail to connect this seated 
goddess with the Assyrian seated goddess of Chapter xxxIx. 

We know, however, that the Egyptians worshiped a Syrian goddess Anthat 
(Anat, c7. names of Syrian cities, Beth Anath, Anathoth) who was figured as seated 
(fig. 911), armed with a club, spear, and shield. She is evidently a warrior goddess, 
an attribution common to nearly all deities but not definitely marked in the seated 
goddess as figured in Syrian art. 





CHAPTER L. 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: THE GODDESS WITH ROBE WITHDRAWN. 


In the Syro-Hittite pantheon one or more naked goddesses are much in evidence. 
It may not be easy to decide certainly whether the various forms belong to a single 
goddess, but they seem to be much allied. . e 

One of these forms is that of the goddess who exposes her nudity by lifting 
her garment on each side. It is seen in fig. 912. The goddess, standing between 
two symmetrical figures of a principal Hittite god, might almost equally be con- 
ceived as holding a skipping-rope or a garland; but we may suppose that she lifts 
up the tassels which weight the garment in front. Neither explanation is quite 
satisfactory. Whether we call it a garland or the edge of her garment, we must 
account for the dotted line which extends each side of the middle of her body, as if 
passing behind it. Above her are the star, the crescent, and the winged disk. Under 
two griffins are a guilloche and four marching figures. These marching figures, 
two or four, are frequent in the Hittite seals, almost as characteristic as the guilloche. 





ee 
—— Ui ff . 
5 a > 





Sometimes, as in fig. 913, this goddess stands over the bull led by Teshub. The 
god stands on two mountains, suggesting that he is the god of storms. He holds 
in one hand a club and in the other two serpents by the neck. Two marching 
figures are over a guilloche, and under that is a lion. There are also a star, the 
sun in a crescent, a bird, a minute rabbit’s head, and over the serpents’ heads 
a flower like a thistle. This cylinder is especially valuable as indicating that 
what has often been called a lituus held in the hand of a king is really a serpent. 

Another case, in which the goddess stands on a bull, is shown in fig. O14. 
This cylinder I am assured came from the Hauran. A worshiper kneels before the 
bull. ‘Iwo other human figures face each other, one perhaps a god; and between 
them is the sun in a crescent, over a monkey. The other objects are a star, a 
thomb, a hare, and a bird. Another is fig. 915. Here the goddess on the bull 
(or cow) is protected by an arch like a rope-pattern or guilloche. Before her 
stands the high-hatted god with a crook, and the remaining space is in two 
registers, of which the upper represents two deities, presumably male and female, 
seated before a table piled with what we may call cakes or “shewbread.” The 
lower register has the four figures in procession. This cylinder is particularly inter- 
esting for the arch, with a sort of wings, over the goddess, which connects it with 
another form of the goddess which we shall consider later (fig. 930). Another is given 

296 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: THE GODDESS WITH ROBE WITHDRAWN. 297 


in fig. 916, with the nude goddess on a bull, before and behind which is a kneeling 
worshiper. Between the two worshipers is a lion, and above are birds and hares. 

But frequently, and perhaps more often, the nude goddess does not stand on a 
bull. Such is the case in fig. 917. In this elaborate and characteristically Syro- 
Hittite cylinder there is an upper line of three Egyptian vultures with outspread 
wings. Under them a worshiper presents a hare to a seated beardless deity who 
holds in the hand a two-handled amphora. By the side of the nude goddess there 
is room for but two figures of the frequent procession. Other accessories are the 
star, the sun in the crescent, and a recumbent ibex. In fig. 918 the goddess occupies 
the full length of the cylinder and opposite her is a seated beardless deity holding 
a vase. [Each side of her head is a crescent, quite an unusual use of the crescent 
as an ornament and not simply as the symbol of a deity. There are also a bird over 
a fish, the head of a sheep, perhaps, and an uncertain small object. In fig. g19 a 
worshiper stands on each side of the goddess, and below are a fish on one side of her 
and a bird on the other. There is also a bird, with wing raised, over a hare. In 
fig. g20 a worshiper stands on one side of the goddess, and on the other, under the 
extended wings of the solar disk, is a peculiarly Syro-Hittite kneeling genius, with 


Ry 





the head and wings of a bird. We observe also a scorpion. Yet another case is 
seen in fig. 921. Here a worshiper stands on one side of the goddess and perhaps 
was repeated in the fracture on the other side. Below is a bird on each side of the 
goddess and in the remaining space is a guilloche like a horizontal figure 8 between 
two lions. In fig. 883 we again have the goddess upon a bull and faced by Adad 
(Teshub) with a club and an ax; over her are her dove and the sun in a crescent. 
There are a seated deity holding a vase, a standing figure, eight figures in procession 
in two ranks, an ibex head, and a guilloche. 

What appears to be a later development of the form of the nude goddess is 
shown in fig. 922, from a cylinder mainly wrought on the wheel. The goddess, 
lifting her garment, as we may suppose, although it looks more like a garland of 
small dots or a skipping-rope, has wings rising from her shoulders, and she stands 
on a lion instead of being on a bull. Beside her, on each side, is a winged 
sphinx-like animal, and under one of them appears to be a man pouring a libation, 
while under the other are a fish and a swan. There is also a standing figure, with 
hands uplifted as if to support the two interrelated crescents, just as we see com- 
posite figures in the same attitude upholding the winged disk (see figs. 683-686). 
Although this is a radical variation of the nude goddess we must consider her as 
identical with the nude goddess on a bull. The wings are a similar innovation and 


298 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


they suffice to show that the goddess did not have a single differentiated form, but 
might considerably vary, so that we must not refuse to recognize the same goddess 
in other nude forms. Another such case we see in fig. 923. Here, unfortunately, 
the figure of the goddess is very much worn, but sufficient details remain to make 
certain that we have the goddess with wings, skirt raised, and face in profile. 
A male figure, probably a god, lifts a serpent, and is followed by a female figure, 
probably a goddess, in a square hat. A lion and an ibex are over a guilloche, and 
under it are two small marching figures. 

We now pass to the cases in which the goddess stands nearly or quite nude, 
but does not stand on a bull or lion. Such an excellent example we have in fig. 924. 
Here the goddess wears a single loose garment which with her hand she draws back 
from one side so as to expose the navel and one entire leg. In one hand she holds 
a dove with its wings extended as if trying to escape. Facing the goddess is a god 
in a low cap with a broad band, after the style of the Gudea figures and deities; 
and half the seal is taken up with two lions facing each other, over a guilloche, 
over a griffin attacking an ibex. The dove, apparently in the hand of the goddess, 
we have seen several times already, and we can not fail to recall the goddess with 
the dove which Evans has found in Cnossus, not to speak of the later relation of 
the dove to Venus. 







SSS) || 








923 

The two same deities we have in fig. 925; but here the goddess stands on a 
platform and the garment seems to fall on each side from her shoulders. Between 
the two facing deities is the small figure of a nude goddess like Zirbanit, except 
that, as in the later seals, her head is in profile. In this large and thick cylinder we 
have room also for two small seated figures facing each other before a table or altar, 
loaded with loaves perhaps, over two small kneeling figures each under an arch, 
such as we shall see in figs. 930, 932-936. ‘There are also a crescent and a crux 
ansata, and the bird with the long neck which we call the Egyptian vulture. This 
cylinder is said to have come from the Hauran. 

Another large and fine cylinder is shown in fig. 926. Here, as in the previous 
cases, the goddess’s flounced garment covers one leg and is seen extending outside 
of the other leg. Before her stands a very short-skirted god, Adad-Teshub, with 
weapons in both hands, a long queue down his back, and walking on mountains. 
On his head is a pointed helmet. On the other side of the goddess is the other prin- 
cipal vested god in a high hat and a longer robe. We observe that both his hands 
are closed fists. Again we have two small figures facing each other before a stand, 
on which is a spouting vase from which they are filling their cups. Under them is 
a guilloche, over three marching figures. Other small objects are a dove over the 
goddess’s vase, a monkey, a bull’s head, a crux ansata, and what are perhaps two 
hands. ‘This cylinder is remarkable for giving us the three principal deities. Yet 
another interesting case we have in fig. 927. Here the goddess appears to be entirely 
nude, but in the usual attitude. On each side of her is the duplicated figure of the 


SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: THE GODDESS WITH ROBE WITHDRAWN. 299 


long-robed god. There is a sphinx above a lion, also a dove above a human head, 
the sun in a crescent, together with some other small uncertain objects. Yet 
another example is seen in fig. 928, where the worshiper facing her has what may 
be an Egyptian asp before his hat. ‘There are a second standing figure, two small 
seated figures facing each other, each holding a crook, over two seated lions. 
There are also in the field the sun in a crescent, a monkey, a human head with 
bull’s horns and ears, and the head of a goat. 

We have already noticed that in fig. g25 we have the figure of the nude Zirbanit 
as well as this nude or semi-nude goddess. In fig. 929 we must consider the pos- 
sibility that we have Zirbanit in the nude goddess with exaggerated hips, her arms 
akimbo, and streams from her shoulders. There is a second smaller figure, between 
two guilloches, with streams from the shoulders, but the arms are extended to the 
streams and the face is in front view and the body in a short robe. A long-robed 
figure, perhaps a worshiper, stands before the goddess, and there is a star. It is 
impossible to decide with certainty, but I am inclined to think that this is not 
Zirbanit, but the same goddess that we have been considering. 





By AS 
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We now consider the same goddess as she is seen under an arch. In fig. 930 
she is quite nude, in the usual attitude, and stands on her bull. In this rare case, 
as in fig. 915, the arch has two wings at the top. Before her is a worshiper holding 
an Egyptian asp, below which is a hawk. Behind her are the Egyptian triple cross, 
the emblem of stability, a worshiper, and a guilloche over two figures of a procession. 
If we take this goddess under the arch to be the same as the goddess we have been 
considering, we must also find her under the semi-arch and standing on a bull in 
fig. 931 (previously shown in fig. go7) although she is decently clad. Before her 
is her dove, and the approaching figure looks much like Martu of the Babylonian 
seals. We have also a worshiper approaching a seated deity before whose head is 
a hare. 

The same goddess, here nude and not on her bull, we see in fig. 932, where 
she holds out her hands to grasp the arch. Beside her is a peculiar column or 
ashera, which we see in figs. 840 and 1308, a sort of Eastern herm, with a human 
face rudely suggested at the top. Of the two other figures, one suggests a confusion 
between Shamash and Gilgamesh, and the other is more like Marduk or Ramman. 


300 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


With these cylinders should be mentioned some others in which the fully clad 
goddess stands under an arch or a half-arch or canopy. One of these is seen in 
fig. 933, where a worshiper stands before the goddess, and an attendant behind her 
holds a crook. Above her is the winged disk and on one side is a hand and on 
the other a fish. A heraldic eagle, with perhaps a fly each side, is over a lotus, an 
ibex, and a hand. Another is given in fig. 934. Here the goddess is duplicated, 
each in front view under a half arch, but facing each other, as shown by the feet. 
We must then think of them as a single deity. Beside her stands a single armed 
figure in a high hat, probably a deity, and a running hare, over a guilloche, over a 
lion. Again the goddess en face is doubled in fig. 935, where she stands under an 
arch. In the remaining space are three small draped figures and the Hittite eagle, 
over a kneeling figure attacking a lion. That this goddess en face is the same as 
the naked goddess on the bull is rendered doubtful by fig. 936, where, again dupli- 
cated, she stands on a lion, as if corresponding to the Babylonian Ishtar. We have 
also the god in a high hat, holding what looks like a flower, with a head like a mush- 
room; also a second bearded figure, probably some other Babylonian deity, in a 





EE IEE ESR 
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> Ai A) 


ZiN (ES. 
932 


flounced garment and a hat of a type familiar in the Gudea figures. Between them 
is a stand or altar, with food or flame, and various small objects, a guilloche, a 
two-handled amphora, and a small human figure and a hare over a lion, over a vase. 

In these last cases the goddess was en face, but in fig. 937 the fully clad goddess, 
in profile, appears to be the same as the nude goddess. She carries before her a 
long crook, while behind her a figure, clad in the Egyptian shent: and with the atef 
on his head, holds a dove towards her. Before her is a figure like the Babylonian 
Martu. Other objects are a small bird with wings outspread over a bull, over a 
guilloche and a lion, the sun in a crescent, the crux ansata, and the same with the 
stem divided, a club, and a cresent. ‘The form of the sun in the crescent explains 
the origin of the Greek cross on the seal of the Kassite period. 

If there is doubt about identifying this goddess, with face in front view, with 
our nude goddess, we can do so with more likelihood in the case of the nude or 
semi-nude goddess with wings. Such a case is in fig. 938. Here she holds a lance 
inone hand. Before her stands a worshiper with a vase, and besides a crescent and 
a hawk there are two doves, her special bird, over three marching figures. 

In fig. 939 the semi-nude winged goddess holds in one hand the weapon of 
Marduk and in the other hand a staff; and a worshiper presents an antelope held 





SIN 





( 


4 Z 
P57, 














SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: THE GODDESS WITH ROBE WITHDRAWN. 301 


by the neck. The remaining space is in three registers. In the upper one is an 
ibex between two lions; in the second are two couchant griffins; in the third a 
seated figure between two sphinxes. A remarkable example we have in fig. 939a. 
Here the winged goddess, in profile, stands on her cow within a shrine. A bizarre 
nude figure, like Gilgamesh, in front view, kneeling and with legs bent outward, 
holds in one hand a sickle-like object and in the other what may be a fan. The 
remainder of the design is in two registers. In the upper is perhaps an altar inclosed 
in two rectangles, perhaps the base or steps of the altar, two apes, and a small 
seated figure under which is the rare cuttle-fish. In the lower register, which is 
reversed, are crossed lions and other animals. The bird near the goddess may be 
her dove. One might compare with this cylinder fig. 956 (where the figure is 
feminine) and figs. 642-646 (the “Gorgons’’). In another case (fig. 940) the winged 
goddess is quite nude. She holds in her hand the same sort of an object which we 
saw in fig. 936 or in fig. 904, only it looks somewhat more like the Egyptian emblem 
of serenity. Before her stands another deity holding a bow and behind her are a 
worshiper and a vertical guilloche. Of two other objects it is hard to say whether 
they are more like fishes or doves. That they are probably birds of some sort appears 





from the bird, whether dove or more likely a hawk, in fig. 1009, a quite unique 
cylinder, in which the goddess sits in the lap of her consort. There are two wor- 
shipers, a guilloche, the hawk over a head, over a hare, also a small vase. All the 
figures wear long flounced garments. ‘This cylinder seems to connect the goddess 
with the high-hatted and fully robed god as his wife. We have previously observed 
her with him, and it is probably this same god whom she follows in fig. 941, a beau- 
tiful cylinder, unfortunately badly broken, so that the upper part of the body of 
the three gods is lost, for they would have been quite characteristic and distinctive. 
The one in front, behind the sphinx, appears to be Adad-Teshub, and one of the 
two others, probably the middle one with hand closed and holding a scimitar, is 
the deity in the high hat, here identified seemingly with Marduk. Here is also a 
crux ansata. 

Before concluding the description of the goddess, or goddesses, of the Syro- 
Hittite art, it is well to include a seated deity, not certainly feminine, who occasion- 
ally appears. Two such are in the de Clercq collection, and in both cases Ménant 
or de Rougé regards the deity as masculine; but to me the goddess is more likely. 
One of these is seen in fig. 942, where she holds a scepter like the Egyptian tat. A 
worshiper stands before her, and a second worshiper before a god like Adad-Teshub. 


302 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


There are a guilloche above and below and various other objects. Another case is 
seen in fig. 943, where the seated deity holds a vase and the remaining space is 
occupied by four cruces ansatz and seven birds. 

It appears to be a goddess whom we see in fig. 944, fully vested, in a tall hat, 
and holding a branch. Her garment is curiously humped behind. Before her is a 
figure who, if we may judge from the “lituus” (or serpent) which he carries in his 
hand, is rather a king than a god. Between the guilloches above and below are 
three figures as attendants. One carries a crook, another a spear, and the third, 
who is kneeling, also carries a sort of crook. 

While we know very little about the names and characteristics of the Hittite 
goddesses from the existing literature, we may presume that this nude goddess 
corresponds to the Phenician or Syrian Astarte, and to the naked Asiatic goddess 
figured on Egyptian monuments (see fig. 775), and may be tentatively called 
Ishkhara. 





ss SB 





942 








CHAPTER LI. 


WINGED FIGURES IN SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS. 


In some Syro-Hittite cylinders the most characteristic mythological figures are 
winged. Indeed, it would seem as if it were from the Syro-Hittite province that 
wings were adopted in the Assyrian art, as they are not characteristic of the earlier 
Babylonian art. Both human figures and composite are often provided with wings. 
We have observed such a case in fig. g20. Fig. 945 would seem to give us a very 
early Hittite cylinder. The god stands on a bull and seems himself to be winged, 
as are the two bird-headed genii that attend him, carrying baskets and cones. In 
the field are a fish and a star, and the guilloche is above and below. In fig. 946 
two winged lion-headed figures kneel on each side of a branching column surmounted 
by a sun in a crescent. Here the column is a variation or development of the 
SACTeU strce mAllGeticatsvGn HG Ul Cota l CatOu (CCN ieee cers a 
pared with the winged monsters which in Assyr- 
ian art attended the sacred tree and the winged 
disk above it. We may presume that the attend- 
ant worshiper is adoring the sun and moon 
rather than the kneeling figures. In fig. 947 the 
winged figure seems to have the neck and head y//\ 
of a bird. A human figure, probably a wor- 7 
shiper and not a god, presents a goat held by : 
the neck, and there ?s a lion over a griffin and ie 
a rabbit. In fig. 948 two similar kneeling winged figures, with a bird’s head an 
neck, follow a female worshiper, who holds a peculiar and undetermined object 
before a god who is identical in appearance with the Babylonian Ramman-Martu. 
The headdress of the worshiper has an Egyptian style and she probably has the 
crux ansata in her hand. 

In fig. 949 the sacred tree 1s replaced by the Ionic column (the early Ionic is 
to be noticed, derived from a palm and not a lotus) and on each side is a winged 
figure with the upper part human and the lower part that of a lion. Above 
the column is the cross of the solar disk in the crescent, and on each side are a 
goat or ibex head and a rabbit. ‘There is a star, and the guilloche is between an 
ibex and a lion. In fig. 950 the bird-headed and winged protecting genius seems 
actually to hold the trunk of the sacred tree with his hands. Under him is a bull 
and opposite him is Marduk. Then we have the winged disk surmounting a column, 
with Eabani on one side holding it, and on the other a rampant dragon attacked 
by a kneeling figure with a spear; while under them is the guilloche. 

Sometimes the winged figure is entirely human. Such a case we have seen in 
fig. 873. Another such case we have in fig. $13, where the shent: worn by the wor- 
shiper, the staffs in the hands of the two figures, and the necks of the vultures above 
and below the guilloche indicate the strong Egyptian influence. 











303 


304. SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Curious are the figures, with wings rising from their shoulders, which we find 
in fig. 951. Two of the three figures are winged and all are animal-headed. ‘The 
wingless figure, with the head of an antelope, carries in one hand a branch with a 
triple end, like the Persian baresma, and in the other a bent rod under a four-rayed 
emblem of the sun, which suggests the crossed emblem which we have seen in the 
Kassite seals as in fig. 532. The winged figure with the head of a bird lifts two 
antelopes by the hind leg and the other winged figure lifts an uncertain animal. 





a winged figure with an Egyptian headdress lifts a gazelle, and facing him is a 
bull-headed figure. Two other figures face each other, one a winged human-headed 
bull and the other a bird-headed flounced figure holding a scimitar in his hand. 
The Egyptian influence is accentuated by the crux ansata. Yet another parallel 
case is shown in fig. 953. Here a winged two-headed figure lifts an animal with each 
hand, and on each side stands a worshiper, apparently aiding in lifting it. Another 
figure holds a club in one hand and with the other lifts the head of an animal. 
I would call attention here to fig. 1212, with its human figures with double animal 
heads and a Sabean inscription. 





A very peculiar cylinder is shown in fig. 954. Arched in an angular guilloche 
a beardless figure, duplicated, de face, is provided with wings falling from the hips 
and an extra joint in the legs, so that they may be fantastically twisted. Alternating 
with this figure, and duplicated, is another in a short skirt and having two heads, 
one of a stag, the other of an antelope. This extremely bizarre design has hardly 
any relation to the general art of the region or period, and except for the guilloche 
might suggest a Gnostic origin, if it were not found on a cylinder. In connection 
with this we may consider fig. 956a with its three two-headed figures, its tree of life, 
lion and ibex, and other smaller emblems. But how these cylinders should be classed 
is not clear. With these may be compared the cylinder shown in fig. 956, where we 


WINGED FIGURES IN SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS. 305 


have a goddess de face with twisted legs (but no supplemental joint) borne on the 
shoulders of two stalwart naked men, while there is a winged goat-fish each side of 
her head. A sort of Gilgamesh, with four wings, stands on two winged monsters and 
lifts with each hand a sphinx by the hind leg. I have no certainty that this cylinder 
is Syro-Hittite. It may come from quite another race of people, of the wild Arab 
hunter character, if we can judge from the pose and style of the two naked men 
who lift the goddess. Just such a one we see in the magnificent cylinder shown in 
fig. 596, where the hunter is engaged at once with a lion, a stag, and an ostrich. 
In fig. 955 the female winged figure with twisted legs lifts her hands under the 
winged disk. She is supported on each side, as in the last case, by a naked male 
figure. The rest of the design consists of a tree of life, and on each side a deer, a 
sphinx, and an ibex. 


VAR ia 
RL HINA ps, 
IN REAR 


ee 
VI 


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Cee ones uae a eee RES TOE” Bae 958 

The winged figure in fig. 957 must be a goddess of superior rank, embraced 
as she is in a guilloche frame. She has the square hat of a goddess and carries in 
one hand the scimitar borne by Marduk, and sometimes by Ishtar, while a long 
staff is held in the other hand. In the remaining space two figures of Aa-Shala 
face each other before the cross of the sun in a crescent, over three scorpions. 

In fig. 958 the winged goddess is closely draped, after the style of an Egyptian 
mummy. A female figure stands in an attitude of ___ 
respect before and behind her, while there is a griffin 
above a guilloche and a humped bull belowit. In fig. 
922 we have observed that the goddess withdrawing 
her garment is sometimes winged, and it may be that 
we have the same deity in a very attractive cylinder 
which is shown in fig. 959. Before the vested god, 
discussed in Chapter xLvu, stands the winged goddess in a short ribbed garment 
with a skirt below it; she has the feminine, square hat. In each hand she carries 
a slender weapon. Under her right hand is a small worshiper. It must not be sup- 
posed that she seizes him by the hair of his head, as it might seem. Between a 
braided guilloche above and below is seen Gilgamesh seizing a lion from behind. 
One should notice the curved club carried by the vested god, which has been 

20 





306 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


thought to be a boomerang or throwstick. We have a similar goddess in fig. 960, 
where the goddess is duplicated before a cypress, with three fishes beside her. 
There is a single worshiper of full size, and, under a rabbit, three smaller appar- 
ently female figures. The same winged goddess we have in fig. 961, where the 
winged goddess carries what may be a spear and a worshiper holds a vase, while 
between them is a small stand with an amphora, also a small vase and the sun in 
the crescent. There are two birds over three marching figures, one of whom 
carries a weapon or standard. In g61a the winged figure with a square hat is a 
goddess, and we have the vested god with an ax, the frequent Babylonian, flounced 
goddess, the small, marching figures, and various emblems. 





In alae 963 we hang what is evidently a male winged deity. This is one of those 
peculiar northern cylinders, one end of which is extended to form a handle pierced 
transversely. The god, or genius more likely, carries a basket and stands in adora- 
tion on one side of the winged disk, over a table and a fish, while a fish-garmented 
genius stands opposite on the other side. ‘There are a star, a crescent, the seven 
dots, and a short sword. 

We may include here such a case as is shown in fig. 962, where we see a winged 
griffin following an ibex, over which is a bird, perhaps a goose. ‘There is also a 
single nude human figure, quite in the Egyptian style. 

Another cylinder, hard to locate, but which seems to be of northern, perhaps 
Armenian, origin, is seen in fig. 964. It is of that variegated stone, red and white 
jasper, which belongs to an outlying province of Assyria. A winged deity, in a 
garment reaching to the knees, lifts a winged bull with each hand by the hind leg, 
while he stands on two ibexes, and a running dog fills an upper space. 

These winged figures are of various meaning. ‘Those with animal or bird 
heads represent not deities but mythological genii, like those that we have seen 
about the sacred tree. But the female winged figure is a goddess, and very likely 
the same goddess whom we have seen usually displaying her nudity in the preceding 
chapter, but sometimes partly or wholly clad, and even winged. Where there 
is the case of a winged male deity he is to be assimilated with the winged genii in 
human shape attached to the Assyrian Sacred Tree. 


X Sy | ZF 


ant aN ER 
as i : 
Vee 


964 





Fy 





CHAPTER LI. 


THE BULL-ALTAR. 


An altar in the form of a bull is hardly to be expected, and yet what else can 
we call the object on the cylinders to be described in this chapter? They are also 
peculiar in the style of the engraving and seem to suggest that they do not belong 
strictly to the region of Babylonia, although their art is allied to it. We have so 
seldom any definite information as to the place where seals were found that we are 
at times left to conjecture on uncertain data as to their origin; such is the case 
with these cylinders. It is my impression that they come from the region outside 
of Assyria proper. I purchased one from the neighborhood of Arbela, the modern 
Erbil, perhaps the only city in the East which is still built on the top of a mound, 
surrounded by walls, and entered by a long ascent through the gate; and I purchased 
one or two others near Mardin, and one was from Antarados in Phenicia. The 
fact that this class of cylinders is rare in the museums and not figured in the pub- 
lished catalogues is evidence that it,is not of true Babylonian or Assyrian origin. 
The Metropolitan Museum has a dozen specimens. 
















( 
UWddipldedle 
S 


ELE 


ANSSSAN 
| LLLLTLLIMILL 
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f 








965 967 

An example is seen in fig. 965. We see, as usual, a very square-bodied bull. 
the body ornamented with three series of close slanting lines, the legs set with no 
sense of anatomical position, and, arising from the back of the bull, a triangular 
object which one may conjecture to represent a flame. Apparently this design 1s 
not meant to represent a real bull, but the image of a bull for worship and probably 
for the offering of sacrifice. We might imagine a cuplike depression on the square 
back of the bull, into which oil was poured and burned. Before the bull-altar, 
if such it be, stand two worshipers, and Gilgamesh lifts a lion and rests his foot 
on its head. Under the bull-altar is a scorpion. All the figured objects are covered 
with the same slanting lines, showing a peculiar school of art which is not Babylonian; 
and yet the basis of the design is mostly Babylonian, apart from the bull-altar. 

A second illustration is from the Collection of the Louvre (fig. 966). Again 
we haye the two worshipers before the bull-altar, but in place of the lion vanquished 
by Gilgamesh we have the rampant and victorious lion of Nergal, as in Chapter 
XXIX, and under the bull is a small human figure, perhaps of a child. This can not 
but raise the question whether we have here a case of human sacrifice, the bronze 
bull being possibly prepared for the immolation of the human victim. We know 
that human sacrifices were practised in Syria and on the western coasts, although 
there is no evidence of such practice prevailing in Babylonia, so that we need not be 
surprised at the possible representation of human sacrifice, perhaps child sacrifice, 
in the region from which these cylinders seem to have come. That we have a case 

307 


308 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


of such sacrifice in this cylinder is, however, a mere matter of conjecture. With 
this we may compare fig. 967, where what [ call the bull-altar is over a lion and 
behind the two is an upright serpent, while three worshipers approach. 

Another peculiar case of this same “bull-altar,’’ in which we may see some- 
thing other than the bull, is shown in fig. 968. Here the object has, besides the 
four legs, two arms and hands reaching out in front, on which, if an altar, an offer- 
ing could be put, after the style in which we are told that children were placed for 
the sacrifice to Moloch. The condition of the cylinder does 
not allow us certainly to understand what was the shape of 
the composite animal’s head, but it does not seem to be that 
of a bull. The conical object which seemed like a flame is 
here so drawn as almost to suggest the turbans, or tiaras, of 
the principal gods as they are figured over the divine thrones 
on the so-called “boundary stones.”’ The accessories of this seal are the worshiper 
in front, a female figure, perhaps the goddess in the form of Aa or Shala behind, 
a star and another small uncertain object over the animal, and, what is important, 
the rope-pattern or guilloche under the bull. ‘This definitely connects the seal 
with the influence of the northern and western region and the Syro-Hittite art, 
although there is nothing else particularly Hittite about this cylinder. 

Another cylinder in which the bull shows the arms in front is seen in fig. 969. 
Unfortunately the upper part of this cylinder has been broken so that the heads of 
the figures are lost. Before the bull-altar, which is shaded with unusual care, is a 
table or stand, and below it a dog (?) and a worshiper. We have then a goddess, 
probably, whose seat is a quadruped of some sort, and under it are two lions. These 
rest on a platform which is supported by the hands of two Gilgamesh-like figures, 
between whom is a Hittite two-headed eagle. Before the goddess we see a vase and 
perhaps a goat-fish, and behind her two small birds. We then have the god Adad, 
or Teshub, with his foot on a bull led by a cord, and in his other hand a serpent 
held by the neck, while before him is a curious animal and a small nude figure. 
There remains another seated deity, or more likely the same, with her seat supported 
by two lions. She holds a vase in her hand and before her is a worshiper with a 
vase and also a columnar altar with a round object on it. This unusually compli- 
cated cylinder seems more Hittite than Syrian, and hardly shows Egyptian influence. 
It is a thick cylinder, and seems to belong to the earlier period of its class. 

But more distinctly of the Syro-Hittite origin appears to be fig. 978, which 
we may probably call fairly Syrian. ‘This we shall have to consider again when we 
come to treat of the goddess in the chariot. ‘The goddess is drawn by four horses 
in a four-wheeled chariot. Before her, in two registers, are two “bull-altars” facing 
each other, with a bird above each, also two bulls crossed and a head or mask, 
and in the lower register four marching figures, two of them meeting the other two. 
A succession of such small figures is characteristic of Syro-Hittite seals. The table- 
altar between the two “bull-altars’’ is to be observed. If the style of this cylinder 
suggests that it is Syrian we have other evidence in the case of fig. 970, a cylinder 
reported to have been found in Antarados, in Phenicia. Here the bull-altar is 
over an ibex and three worshipers approach a seated beardless deity, before whom 
is the sun in a crescent. In fig. g71 three worshipers approach the bull-altar, which 
stands on a platform, as also in the next figure. 











N 
x B 

SS 

aR i\ 

E MUNN TIN YH iy 


ANA 


Co 





THE BULL-ALTAR. 309 


We have a slight variation of the usual style in fig. 972 where the two worshipers 
are kneeling, and there are irregular cross-lines on the “flame.” But we have quite 
a different and important variation on two cylinders, where the cone or “flame” 
over the bull is replaced by a bird as in fig. 978. One of them (fig. 973) is quite 
elaborate and gives us two bulls facing each other, with a table, or altar, between 
them, and three animals below, while also a worshiper approaches a seated deity. 
The other, fig. 974, also has a seated deity with two worshipers, and under the bull 
a dog or lion. Another cylinder which we may doubtfully include here is shown 
in fig. 975. [he general style of cutting is the same, but the bull is not the chief 
object in the design, although there is a worshiper before it and above it is a rabbit. 
The other objects are a seated beardless deity, before her a lion and two worshipers, 
and two small figures under the bull. 

With the exception of fig. 969, none of these cylinders belong to a good style 
of art. They are coarsely cut, on hematite, and suggest a comparatively rude 
period in the district where they were used. It is also noticeable that they carry 









\ 7 


; Zs,” 
ai om Sit zi 
: | mann WANITATN 
Sh inet TPrenReead 
ry C IT A Bu y) 









G 
LAY UNS i at 
PNT)” AMARA, (se og on A ce 
INA leaan _ iy} fy Kyl 
Coppi, (FV er 
| ryt, fra duane ul 
jo = eapreray y/ 
970 


973 
no inscriptions, although the cuneiform script must have been the prevailing art. 


It is likely that they belong to a period of about 1500 B. C., when the shape and 
size and style of the Middle Babylonian Empire were controlling, but the art was 
debased in outlying provinces. It is quite impossible to identify the object of wor- 
ship represented by the bull, or rather the image of the bull, further than to say 
that it is certainly an image for worship and not an animal that is represented. 

The question has been raised whether we have here a representation of a 
human sacrifice, as suggested by the child (but clothed) under the bull in fig. 966, 
and also the arms in figs. 968, 969. In a paper on “The Image of Moloch,” by 
Prof. George F. Moore (Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. xvi, p. 155), a Jewish 
midrash is quoted, according to which the idol had the head of a calf, on a human 
body; its arms were extended to receive the victim; the image (of metal) was 
hollow, and heated by a fire within till the hands were glowing; the priests took 
the child from the parent and laid it in the arms of the god until it was burned to 
death; the priests meanwhile beating drums loudly to drown its cries. ‘This story, 
Professor Moore believes, was derived by the rabbinic midrash from the tale by 
Diodorus Siculus, of the sacrifice by the citizens of Carthage of two hundred boys 
of noble birth to Kronos, when the city was besieged by Agathocles. The image of 
Kronos was of brass and its arms were stretched out in such a direction that the 
children when laid on its arms would roll off into a pit of fire. It can hardly 


310 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


be doubted that there was some basis for the report of these child sacrifices at 
Carthage, and in that case also, very likely, in Phenicia or Syria. We must also 
keep in mind, in this comparison, the bull of Phalaris, first mentioned by Pindar 
(“Pyth.” 1, 185), which was a bronze bull, with an opening by which the tyrant’s 
victim was put within and a fire kindled underneath. This may well have had 
its origin in a bronze image in which sacrifices of human victims were offered to a 
god. It is by no means to be positively claimed that we have in these seals a repre- 
sentation of a bronze bull in which, either within its body or on its arms, children 
were sacrificed by fire, as to Moloch (properly Melekh, the King), and yet the rep- 
resentations suggest it. It is somewhat probable that these cylinders were in use 
in northern Syria and that they represent a cultus not Assyrian, but belonging to 
the Aramaic people. Almost certainly fig. 978 is Syrian, with its goddess in the 
four-wheeled chariot, while fig. g70 came from Phenicia. We do not know how 
far what we may call Syrian, or Syro-Hittite, may have extended to the east, perhaps 
even across the Tigris. 


esi 


=i 
MM Whiz 


ae 


a a 





CHAPTER LIII. 


SYRO-HITTITE DEITY IN A CHARIOT. 


Probably, like others of the general class which I have called Syro-Hittite, 
the goddess to be considered in this chapter is more Syrian than Hittite, perhaps 
Phenician. The cutting of these cylinders is generally rather rude and coarse, 
their workmanship being inferior to those which show the more Egyptian influence. 
Indeed the Egyptian influence is lacking and we may regard them as purely native 
in their idea and execution; but just what country they came from is not clear. 
We may observe that their facture is much like that of the cylinders containing 
the bull-altar, in the preceding chapter, and, indeed, we shall see that the bull-altar 
is on two of these cylinders. 

We have a fair example of these cylinders with the goddess in fig. 976. She 
sits not in a war chariot, which has two wheels and is drawn by two horses, but in 
a ceremonial four-wheeled car drawn by four horses. She sits alone, on the seat 
behind, while before her is the much higher portion over which the reins go which 
fall down till they reach the horses’ heads. ‘The dress of the goddess is flounced. 
The wheels are arranged with a cross, which suggests the symbol of the sun. One 


Ye ra LCL LORLLCOS IIT OLLIE OLE ALOR TLLUAUL A IILL ALL aS (ZU ma ZZ 
I ATLLULLLLS Py KE ss 
Mtineeesen » A 


fa 
NI 









—< 









SZ . 
32 : £ 4 
<3 fs o” SE AAAALARUNS 
Se \RRB LE ‘\ >A a 7 . NEN 
3 BA os SS /k xaal: WAU, 
: SM oe’ a Jar 
< & HY SY fi ¥ i Oa Lo Pb 
5 Pesci OF SS SSS 
= = th 
areas SY ses 
: (ean LI; eS. 
A A% re 
rrr rs : 
SSN lity 
a? AY UL, 
rm oo 


LZ ee th TLL RU 
978 


must not think that there is an attempt at perspective in the reduction of the size 
of the further horses; simply the curvature of the reins did not leave room for the 
full-sized horse. Before the chariot are two registers, of which the upper contains 
two crossed bulls and the bull-altar, with the body quite different, in its crossed 
lines, from the two crossed bulls, suggesting that it does not represent animals, 
but an image with a flame, perhaps, arising from the back, as shown in Chapter 
tit. In the lower register two small figures face two anne such as we see in the 
processions on Syro-Hittite seals. 

Another example much like this is seen in fig. 978. Again we see the four- 
wheeled chariot of state, and also the pole by which the four horses are driven 
abreast. Four attendants march beside the chariot. The rest of the space is in 
two registers. First we have, above, two bulls crossed, as before, and below them 
two crossed lions. Then come, in the upper register, two symmetric bull-altars, 
with a bird above the angular flame, if such it be, and a table with loaves between 
them and a worshiper before them. Below are three kneeling figures of Gilgamesh 
in front view, the middle one holding up his hands and the others holding each a 
standard on which is the sun ina crescent. One is struck by the extreme symmetrical 
arrangement of the bull-altars and the figures of Gilgamesh. 

311 


512 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Yet another illustration appears in fig. 977, where there is a certain suspicion 
that the deity is bearded. There also sits a monkey-like figure in the chariot, and 
the two attendants walk behind. Again, in fig. 979 before the chariot are heads, 
birds, and fishes. 

In the cases given it is by no means sure that the deity is a goddess who rides 
in state. We may possibly have here the more Greek conception of the sun-god 
driving his chariot through the heavens, as, indeed, they are interpreted by Robert 
Brown, Jr., in The Academy, Nov. 7, 1896, who sees here Auriga, and yet I am 
more inclined to see here an Oriental thought of a goddess in a chariot. In the 
Babylonian mythology the Sun-god rather rode over the sky or across the under 
waters in a boat. We seem to have some relation to the figures in our seals in the 
worship of Anaitis, as we find it described in the Zend-Avesta. We read (“Sacred 
Books of the East,” 111, vol. 2, pp. 56, 57, American Edition): 

11. Who drives forward in her chariot, holding the reins of the chariot. She goes driving, on 


this chariot, longing for men—to worship her—and thinking thus in her heart: ‘* Who will praise me? 


Who will offer me the sacrifice, with libations clearly prepared and well strained, together with the Haoma 
and Meat ?’’ 


Whom four horses carry, all white, of one and the same color, of the same blood, tall, crushing 


down the hates of all haters, of the Devas and men, of the Yatus and Pairikas, of the oppressors of the 
blind and the deaf. 


The description is accurate, and it may well be that this, from the Aban Yast, 
was derived from just such a figure of the goddess as we see on these cylinders. 
The Persian Anaitis (Anahita) was identified in the West with the Ephesian Artemis 
and the Phenician Astarte. If we could only know where cylinders with this design 
and those with the bull-altar are more generally found, we could more hopefully 
assure ourselves whether we have here an Anaitis from east of the Tigris or a west- 
ern Astarte. One cylinder with the bull altar I obtained at Arbela, but I think 
that was the eastern extreme of its prevalence. 




















0S, 2 omy 


my YS 















I have said that the two-wheeled chariot was used for war. There are several 
cylinders which seem to be related in style to those above described, and which 
give us a deity, or a hero, in battle. The similarity is in the attendants with their 
marching attitude. One such is given in fig. 980. ‘The two-wheeled chariot is 
drawn by two horses; and the long-skirted beardless driver, apparently feminine, 
leans forward, holding the reins with one hand, and with the other brandishes a 
whip. Above the horses is a scorpion and below them a dove, both emblems of 
a feminine deity. Behind the chariot are two soldiers carrying one a spear and the 


SYRO-HITTITE DEITY IN A CHARIOT. B10 


other a short sword. Another of the same type is shown in fig. 981. The rider, 
the horses, and the chariot are the same, but a single tall warrior follows with a 
short sword and running swiftly. His is a short garment, unlike the long robe of 
the presumed goddess. Above are two Egyptian vultures and below are three 
double scrolls. ‘This is evidently of an Egyptian style and, indeed, in both cases, 
the workmanship is superior to that in the seals which show the goddess in the 
four-wheeled chariot, so that these are more closely connected with the better Syro- 
Hittite style. 

That this represents a deity and not a human warrior is rendered probable 
by fig. 982 where the beardless figure, presumably a goddess, is drawn by lions, 
which seem to relate her to Ishtar, or Astarte. Behind her chariot are two marching 
figures with headdresses of asps. ‘The style is Egyptian, and so probably early. 
In the much later art the Phrygian goddess Ma, or Kybele, the turret-crowned 
Magna Mater of Pessinus, was drawn by lions, much in this style, in her search 
for her son Attis (Roscher, “Kybele,” cols. 1651, 1671); and in Lucian “De Dea 
Syria”’ we are told that the goddess of Hierapolis was drawn by two lions. Ishtar 
of Nineveh was drawn by seven lions (Boscawen, Oriental and Babylonian Record, 
VILL pets]: 

For cylinders which give us not deities, but scenes distinctly of history or 
fighting from a chariot, see Chapter LVIII. 

But we have in the Egyptian mythology and art what we may regard as well- 
nigh conclusive eyidence that the goddess in the chariot is the Syrian Ashtoreth, 
or Ishtar (Astarte). Among the Syrian gods carried into Egypt and worshiped 
and figured there was Astharthet, called “Mistress of the horses, Lady of the 
Chariot” (Budge, “The Gods of the Egyptians,” 11, p. 278), and figured driving 
in a chariot over prostrate foes (fig. 983). After their manner the Egyptians gave 
her the head of a lion, and we remember the relation of Ishtar to a lion in both 
the Babylonian and Assyrian art. Indeed in another form of Ishtar in Egypt she 
stands on a lion, as in fig. 775. We have seen her drawn by lions after the better 
Syrian convention in fig. 982. 

It may be noticed that we have here in Syria the four-horse team, attached to 
a four-wheeled chariot. In Ridgeway’s “Origin and Influence of the Thorough- 
bred Horse,” p. 251, it is said that ‘the four-horse chariot does not seem to have 
been employed by any of the peoples of Upper Europe, by Vedic Aryans, Persians, 
Assyrians, Canaanites, or Egyptians,’ but was introduced by the Greeks from 
Libya in the seventh century B. C. But we have here the four-horse chariot used 
for purposes of state, but with racing horses, at a period probably considerably 
earlier. 


CHAPTER LIV. 


RUDE SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS. 


There is a class of cylinders, usually of hematite or magnetic iron ore, which 
may be treated by themselves because of the style of their artisanship rather than 
their designs, although sometimes they are of chalcedony or even agate. They 
are not found so much along the Syrian coast as they are within the Cilician Hittite 
region, from Marash and Aintab eastward. ‘Their peculiarity is that they are 
made entirely with the wheel, and generally very rudely. Three cutting tools may 
be used, one making a round deep hole, large or small, according to the size of the 

burr used; another a disk, the edge of which was applied to 

=; make straight lines, generally deeper in the middle where the 

disk dug deeper; and the third a cylindrical tool which when 

applied vertically would cut circles, or which if held at an angle 

would make semicircles or crescents. We may suppose these 

to represent a rather late period in the Hittite art, and also the 

cheaper products of the trade, for it was possible to do some very excellent work 

with the wheel. ‘The designs are of all sorts, but very rude animals, fishes, and 
birds were frequently sufficient to satisfy the owner. 

One of the better examples of this style is seen in fig. 984. Here Teshub leads 
his bull and lifts his weapon. Before him are a worshiper and the sacred disk. A 
bird-headed winged figure approaches a seated deity, probably a goddess. Fig. 
g85 is of interest, as it represents two far-separated periods of art. The cylinder 
was originally of an excellent old Gudea type, and afterwards fell into the hands 


1Z=Ce 
WY. 

i i 

M\\ \| i Cy 


piers SI he AY 
Aa Us 


of a man of the late Hittite period, who retained of it the fine seated god and the 
worshiper and the goddess Aa, and also the sun in its crescent. But the later owner 
removed the inscription and put in its place meaningless animals and other emblems 
between the old figures, one of them the Egyptian symbol of stability. 

In fig. 986 the seat of the goddess is on a lion and before her are a sphinx and 
also a worshiper. A winged figure lifts two antelopes. ‘There is a sacred tree. 
The guilloche is very rude and, as in these cylinders, is wrought with the cylindrical 
drill. In fig. 987 there is a seated deity, and another god rests his foot on a lion. 
There are various animals, and it is not quite certain that what looks like a sacred 
tree is not really a cuttle-fish, as in fig. 798. 

314 











RUDE SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS. oLO 


The facture of the guilloche will be observed in fig. 896, on which are three 
figures, one of which is winged and lifts two ibexes; one stands and holds a weapon; 
and one is on his knee and strikes a spear at the head of a lion below him. 

But these are unusually elaborate specimens of this style. Somewhat better 
than the average is fig. 25, where the sacred tree is quite as likely to be the cuttle- 
fish. The guilloche can hardly be recognized in its circles, but Zirbanit is clear, 
as are the sphinx, the ibex, and the scorpion. In place of a deity in human form 
we have in fig. 988 the winged disk over a column, guarded by winged animals. 










Sx 











=O 












SU Se RY | 
LS SESS : 
It will be observed that the cylindrical drill makes a fine curve to the tail, and 
always the same. We have in fig. 989 the guilloche and the winged disk, and of 
the animals a lion is recognizable. Fig. 1046 will give us a study of the guilloche 
and fig. 990 of a little zoological garden. It may be well to give half a dozen other 
illustrations, of which a hundred might be chosen. Such are fig. 991, where the solar 
disk has become a wheel; fig. 993, where the curve of the lion’s tail makes him into 
a dog; fig. 992, a silver cylinder, on which the objects of the lower register are past 
guessing; fig. 994, with its animals and its winged disk; fig. 995, with its two figures 
holding a sort of standard; and fig. 996, with its nude goddess. 


Ge 





993 994 

While these cylinders are of very little value either for their art or their mythol- 
ogy, their number gives them importance and they indicate a general culture which 
required that men of the humbler positions found it necessary to have a distinctive 
seal; and it shows the interest taken in animals, which very possibly entered into 
the name and the worship of the owners. As we have such names as Lyon, Lamb, 
and Kidd, so a man whose name was Frog might cover his seal with frogs. We 
shall see in figs. 1030 and 1031 seals entirely covered over with pigs and foxes, and 
the names of Hogg and Fox are familiar to us. 





CHAPTER LV. 


MISCELLANEOUS SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS. 


In the Syro-Hittite class of cylinders must be put a number quite eclectic and 
curious, which combine Egyptian, Hittite, and Babylonian characteristics and are 
therefore, perhaps, as nearly pure Syrian as anything we can choose. They are 
well cut, largely with the wheel. One of these is seen in fig. 997. On each side of 
the Assyrian tree of life, below, is a couchant ibex, and on each side above is a griffin. 
A Hittite goddess in a chair carries the Hittite ax, but has a headdress of horns, 
and a vase which suggests Egyptian influence. Before her a short-skirted figure, 
with a bull’s head and uptilted Hittite shoes, presents a lion to the goddess, holding 
it by the head and tail, while the goddess grasps its leg. Above, in the field, are a 
fish and a rosette, and between them what may be a weapon. Another to be con- 
sidered is fig. 1000. Here, with a sacred tree, are three bizarre two-headed figures 





1000 1001 
which lift, between them, a lion and an ibex. The three figures are all flounced, 
and the middle one has the heads of bulls, while the heads of the others may be 
supposed to be human, perhaps. There is a bull’s head, also rosettes, etc. One 
that may be quite early, and is at least very rudely scratched on magnetic iron, is 
given in fig. 999. Before a seated beardless deity holding a vase stand one small 
and one full-length figure. There are a sphinx and various birds and animals, also 
the crux ansata; and, in place of the rope-pattern guilloche, there is an unusual 
returning spiral. One notices both the sun in the crescent and a star in a crescent 
by the head of the seated deity. While peculiar, the composition hardly looks like 
a forgery. Of a somewhat later period is fig. 998, engraved with the terebra. 
There are three Assyrian figures, of whom one may be Marduk. ‘There are various 
animals, but peculiar are the wheel, nearly or quite unique, and the hand. 

316 


MISCELLANEOUS SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS. O17 


There are some cylinders notable for the extreme minuteness and crowded 
complexity of their design, which we are compelled to regard as from the Syro- 
Hittite region. They are wrought in part by the point and in part by the wheel. 
Such a one is to be seen in fig. 1oor. It is in two registers. The upper one has two 
kneeling figures of Gilgamesh facing each other under a winged disk and a large 
rosette; then a vase and a “libra’”’; a winged figure with two lion heads; another 
winged figure with two antelope-heads and holding an antelope by the hind leg 
with each hand; then two short-skirted figures, each carrying a goat on his shoulder, 
while an ibex walks by his side. The second or opposite register, for the figures 
are reversed, is separated from the first by a series of small, close circles, each 
inclosing a dot, all made with a cylindrical tool, and together forming a guilloche. 
It contains a seated deity, before which is a rampant ibex (?); an animal-headed 
figure holding a javelin; a winged figure with two animal heads lifting two ante- 
lopes by the hind leg; a short-skirted and a long-skirted figure lifting animals, 
perhaps one of them a man lifted by his leg; and finally, a lion-headed figure 
holding a long spear or staff. The short-skirted figures seem to be masculine, 
while the long-skirted figures seem to be feminine and are winged, except the 
seated goddess. It is possible that both these scenes belong to the underworld, 
and so should be connected with Chapter XLVI. 


(GO 


sSSSSS SceaqeaEGESs 



















1002 1003 

Another of this type is given in fig. 1002. The upper register has a sacred 
tree with an ibex each side of it, a flounced figure (probably Aa-Shala), a rampant 
bull with human head and high Hittite hat, the naked goddess, and a deer couchant. 
In the lower register are Marduk and Aa-Shala, with a rampant ibex between 
them, a winged sphinx and other animals. One observes, as in the last case, the 
abundant use of the tubular drill. One would imagine the cylinder shown in fig. 
1003 to have come from the same atelier. ‘The tooling and the sacred tree (may 
it be a cuttle-fish ?) are the same, but the registers are separated by a guilloche. 
In the upper register a naked winged goddess lifts a reversed lion by the hind leg 
and is flanked on each side by a figure like Marduk; another figure, not winged, 
similarly lifts two lions, and beside him is a long-skirted figure, probably feminine, 
with wings covering the legs; and each side of these two figures is a worshiper. In 
the lower register is the sacred tree (or cuttle-fish) with an ibex each side, one of 
which seems to be attacked by a man; and there are also a sphinx, a lion, and other 
animals. 

Very much finer in execution is fig. 1004. An elaborate guilloche separates 
the two registers. In the upper register two seated sphinxes face each other and 
there are four scorpions. In the lower we have the same four scorpions, with 
a small couchant gazelle and also, as a very unusual motif, quite Greek in its 
effect, two nude athletes struggling, and each seizing the other by the ankle. It 


318 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


would not be very hazardous to conceive of this cylinder as belonging to the late 
Mycenzan or early Greek period. 

Much ruder in its workmanship is fig. 1005. Here the two registers are not 
clearly separated. “The upper one contains a human figure with short trousers and 
five rampant animals, like ibexes. In the lower register are two human figures, 
one seizing an animal, a number of rosettes, and various animals. Much is crowded 
into fig. 1006. Here two seated beardless deities hold each a vase over an altar, 
while above them is the winged disk. A worshiper stands before Teshub, and a 
pointed columnar altar is between them. A griffin attacks a lion, which in turn 
attacks a humped ox. There is also a star, and a guilloche runs along under the 
figures. 

Two peculiar gods are seen in fig. 1007. One of these gods, in a short Hittite 
garment, carries a club in his left hand over his shoulder, and in his right are two 
star-like flowers with long stems. The second god is clothed and stands like Sha- 
mash, with leg lifted. In his left hand he holds behind him a bent weapon, and 
in his right he lifts the Babylonian caduceus. Before him is a worshiper, and the 
remaining space is crowded with a sphinx, a crescent, a rabbit, a vulture, an ibex, 
etc. ‘This is reported from the Hauran. 


Pat HERS 


DN 


Ww Ky 
Be ea Ne 0% 


Ir, Sty Din 


1004 
) ROTO L soe 
BS SARA QAD 
1006 

Among those which represent a god or hero as an archer may be included 
fig. 1008, said to have come from Beisan in the trans- Jordan region of the Hauran. 
With his bent bow he shoots an ibex. ‘There is another standing figure, with hands 
lifted, carrying, in the attitude of an eastern hamal, weights from his shoulders. 
Other objects are a rabbit, over a griffin, over a small sitting figure; also a bird, a 
goat’s head, a fish, and a “libra.” 

There are several peculiar or unique designs on Hittite cylinders that may 
be here described. One of them is shown in fig. 1009. Here the male figure holds 
the female on his knees, while a worshiper, or attendant, stands before and another 
behind, in an attitude of respect. All the figures are in flounced garments. There 
is a Hittite eagle over a human head, over a rabbit; also a small pitcher and a 
guilloche. ‘The attitude of the god holding the goddess indicates the Egyptian 
influence. In fig. 1010, from the Hauran, there are three flounced female figures, 
the central one apparently Ishtar. Then we have the Hittite eagle over a guilloche, 
over an unusual stag, in a cramped position to fit the space. We observe also two 
stars, a fish, and an Egyptian hawk. ‘The cylinder shown in fig. 1011 is also of 
unusual design. A figure on horseback carries a bent weapon and four marching 
figures of the frequent Hittite type approach. ‘There are also a crux ansata, a 










ESCO 









io 
° 
S 

















MISCELLANEOUS SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS. 319 


scorpion, and a small crescent. Another very peculiar cylinder, for which I can 
find no real parallel, is to be seen in fig. to12. Here are three figures, each nude 
except for a girdle, the two ends of which hang down. They have long hair falling 
over their shoulders, and two of them are apparently fighting with short swords, 
while the third holds a spear. ‘There is a guilloche with an ibex couchant above 
and another below it. There is also a crux ansata. 

It must not be a matter of surprise that, with the paucity of inscriptions and 
other literary material available for instruction, and the variety of districts from 
which these Syro-Hittite cylinders come, we find not a few which, while they are 
interesting, we can not classify or interpret. They represent mythological concep- 





tions of which we are still ignorant. We can not be certain who is the god or who 
the two gods represented as worshiped in fig. 1013. One of them, before whom a 
goddess like Aa stands in adoration, looks like Marduk. In fig. 1014, a cylinder 
from the Hauran, there seem to be Egyptian resemblances. The winged disk, with 
rays in place of a tail, is utterly unlike what we see in any other known cylinder, 
except a Cypriote cylinder shown in fig. 1168, but it suggests the rays with hands, on 
the solar disk, as worshiped by the heretic king of Egypt. ‘The seated deity and 
the figure approaching and offering fish have the head of a dog. There is a second 


small worshiping figure and also a small simple tree. Fig. 1015 is peculiar, because 


teal 





















Veh | Nec EY) 2 
7G) CEN 
Aer, a 
MC A ao | <K 
Ee — NN Y LL 
FERRORHS 1017 
1015a 1016 


two small nude human figures with face turned upward and one arm lifted in petition 
seem to beg their life of a nude goddess who has her two arms reached above them. 
She holds in one hand the standard to which one of the small figures seems tied by 
the wrist, and above which are the crescent and disk. T'wo griffins, two lions, a bird 
and two other uncertain objects fill the space of three registers. In fig. 1o15a we 
have two griffins facing each other, with a tree of life above and a prancing lion 
below. Back of them is the rope-pattern which includes three rosettes, while stand- 
ing on it are two figures in a definitely Hittite dress and with a Hittite queue, who 
hold a lotus, apparently, each toward a small flounced figure who stands over the 


wing of the griffin. 


320 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Sphinxes and griffins are very common on these cylinders, but generally they 
are found in reduced size in the registers. Occasionally they occupy the main space. 
Such a case appears in fig. 1305c, where below the interlace two seated sphinxes 
face each other, each lifting a foot, and between them, above, is a winged disk, 
and below the head of the goddess Belit-Ninkharshag. ‘There is also a star, and 
the goat’s head of the god Tarkhu is under a rabbit. With this may be compared 
a pyramidal seal of approximately the same age, seen in fig. 1016. 

It is worth while to call attention to fig. 1017 for the emblems of the column 
surmounted by a human head protected above and behind by a covering, as this 
seems to have entered into the Hittite hieroglyphic system and is occasionally to 
be seen on the cylinders. A figure somewhat like Shamash stands before the column 
and two other figures may represent a god and a goddess. Fig. 1018 may be observed 
for the somewhat rude cutting and the type of the protuberant faces, more like 
what we find on the Hittite bas-reliefs. “There are two gods, one something like 
Shamash in his attitude, and one more like Teshub, and before each is a worshiper. 
One observes that the headdress of the worshipers is simpler than that of the gods. 

Fig. 1019 is of interest particularly for the shape of the altar, which was in use 
in Assyria at least to the time of Sargon, for one of alabaster, with his name, is in 
the British Museum. ‘This is an out large cylinder (44 mm. in length) of 


ct aoe 
le i we Bou CAN DS 


=i 


— 
WANN 
—— 





eS Baa. 
3 ee (QESSSSSESSsy) 
oy tA, (is S Ww NY) 
Ba SAS 
WL PS SIN ie INE 





1018 1020 


hematite. Quite unusual is the design in fig. 1020 where a god—for he carries in 
the same hand a form of the Babylonian caduceus and an animal—attacks a lion. 
The four registers which fill most of the space are unusually elaborate. In the upper 
one are rabbits and heads; in the second an ibex, a lion, a man lying on his back, 
and a bird; the third is a guilloche; and in the fourth a dragon, a seated female 
figure, and a kneeling figure carrying an animal on his shoulder. 

Fig. 1021 1s peculiar in the style of its cutting, quite unlike almost anything 
else. ‘Iwo such scorpions, cut very deep on the hematite and yet well cut, can 
hardly find a parallel. The columns, with their crossed pineapple tops and the 
closely crossed bodies of the goats, are equally peculiar, not to speak of the stars 
in couples flanking the bottom of the columns. It is impossible to guess with any 
degree of assurance as to the provenance of this seal. Fig. 1022 may perhaps 
belong to the same facture. “I'wo lions attack an ibex, and there are two uncertain 
animals in a heraldic attitude before a column. Fig. 1023 is peculiar in that the 
design runs around the cylinder instead of standing vertically upon it in the usual 
way. Itisin two registers. In one the short-skirted god is duplicated symmetrically, 
fighting a lion. His long queue is to be noticed. In the other register we have the 
winged disk resting on a column, with the worshiper symmetrically standing on 
each side. 

From the earliest times the Babylonian art was familiar with the spouting vase, 
as we have seen in Chapter x1. It was to be expected that this vase with its streams 


MISCELLANEOUS SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS. BZ 


would be adopted in the Syro-Hittite art. In fig. 1024 the hand, the rabbit, and the 
crux ansata make it clear that this is rather Syrian or Hittite than Babylonian, 
although the influence is chiefly from Babylonia. A seated god rests his feet and 
his throne on two human-headed bulls, such as we have seen on Babylonian cylin- 
ders and in bronze (see figs. 320-322). One of the streams spouts from the vase 
held in the god’s hand and the other from his shoulder, and each falls on the 
head of the bull below. A worshiper presents a goat and two other worshipers 
follow. A bird, a star, an ox’s head, a hand, and a “libra” with a peculiar handle, 










COAT 
SSW! 






S— MMI 
SSN NWUNNT LPT ig 

Nim < f 
WZ n 


—S 






—— USS 


asta ee ts SAE SSS. 
STARR 
















fill the vacant spaces. More usually it is a goddess who is the source of the stream. 
In fig. 1025 the goddess stands in front view, with earrings, and a very small run- 
ning antelope is each side of her head. A stream falls from each of her shoulders, 
with mo vase visible in her hands. Within the stream is a fish. Each side of the 
goddess stands Eabani holding a spear with the point down. In the remaining 
space two monkeys face each other over an uncertain object. The face of the 
goddess is in profile in fig. 1026, a Hauran cylinder, and the water spouts from the 





"is 
RNA. 






Av 


Qi 





102Ta Riker otras RR ee Baad, 10% 
vase in her hand and is gathered into another vase on the ground. “Two human 
figures (their hats are not horned) stand one before and the other behind the god- 
dess; and above a guilloche are a sphinx and a rabbit, and below a lion and a goat’s 
head. Much the same design appears in fig. 1027 except that the streams fall on 
the ground and above and below the guilloche is a sphinx. In fig. 880 we have 
seen Gilgamesh with the spouting vase. We see him perhaps again in fig. 10274 
where the standing god with the thunderbolt in the shape of the Greek trident is 
Adad, and we have the seated goddess with the sacrificial table before her. 

21 


322 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Another cylinder, like the last from the fine collection of Mrs. Henry Draper, 
shows how these Syro-Hittite designs might be confused past all disentangling. 
In fig. 1027) the short-skirted figure to the right, with a possible palm branch over 
his shoulder and a bunch of flowers in the other hand, may be Teshub. The middle 
figure, in the attitude of Shamash, carries apparently throw-sticks in one hand and 
the caduceus of Ishtar in the other. The third figure may be a worshiper, but he 
seems to have in one hand the scimitar of Marduk and in the other two serpents 
such as are carried by the Hittite kings. The field is crowded with all sorts of 
emblems, an Egyptian vulture, a Hittite hare, a Phenician hand, a Babylonian 
“libra,” a sphinx, and various other objects, the artist’s only purpose being to leave 
no vacant spaces. 

Another cylinder (1027c) may be included here especially for the very rare 
material, which is glass. Here an apparently worshiping figure stands before an 
ibex over a griffin, while above are two rhombs. The arrangement of the animals 
is much like the Hittite style, and yet this might perhaps with as much probability 
be classed with the Kassite cylinders of Chapter xxxuI. 


CHAPTER LVI. 
OBJECTS REPEATED. 


Certain cylinders give us nothing but animals or other objects repeated. 
‘They may be almost any animal, a frog, a fish, a pig, a fox, or other creature, or 
even a human head. It is difficult to assign the provenance of these cylinders, but 
we can probably attribute them to the outlying territories of Assyria, the eastern 
portion of the Syro-Hittite region. A simple example is shown in fig. 1028, where 
the repeated objects are frogs and birds, coarsely wrought with the wheel. Another 
is fig. 1029 where fishes are repeated. 

Some of these are very coarsely engraved, and such a cylinder as fig. 1028 
might well have been included among the illustrations of rude Syro-Hittite work. 
But such is not the case with fig. 1030, covered with delicate figures of swine, twenty 











1032 Tp 
in number, in four registers. Equally we have a delicately engraved cylinder shown 
in fig. 1033, where there are twelve admirably drawn foxes. This is, so far as I 
recall, the second case in which the fox appears on a cylinder. In fig. 1032 there 
are two registers of scorpions. 

We have a curious case in fig. 1031, where, before a short-skirted man holding 
a bow, the rest of the field is covered with thirty-three human heads, as if the owner 
of the seal had put upon it the register of the number of enemies he had slain in 
battle. To be compared with this is fig. 1034. Here we have six vertical columns 

323 


324 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


arranged after the style of cuneiform inscriptions; only in place of the inscriptions 
we have in one column three hands, in the next two seated children, in the next 
nailmarks, in the next three ox heads under a crescent, in the next four uncertain 
objects, and in the last three birds. It may be that this cylinder should be classified 
as Babylonian. 
















Dy ; 
Z SASS 
















1036 

The cylinder seen in fig. 1035 comes down into the late Assyrian or Syro-Hittite 
influence. It is a large cylinder and contains three registers. The upper one con- 
tains four recumbent ibexes, the lower contains four ibexes walking, and between 
them is a very rude guilloche engraved with the tubular tool. 

A very neat cylinder, which we may call Syro-Hittite, is shown in fig. 1036. 
Here the guilloche divides the field; above it are three humped bulls and below it 
three lions. 


CHAPTER LVI. 


GEOMETRICAL DESIGNS. 


Among cylinders, as in pottery, the geometrical designs represent the coarser 
and less skilful workmanship, but we can not certainly say the oldest. They prob- 
ably belong to rude people, rather than to the more ancient. Indeed they are not 
found in the early Chaldean, but only in Assyria or the regions about. ‘This might 
be suspected from the material, which is usually serpentine or a black slaty rock. 
The cross-lines and angles can hardly be called ornamental, and only occasionally 
do they take, as in figs. 1044, 1047, any claim to symmetry or beauty. 


O77 BOOIO00'O 
BD 


Sw A <A 
fee SERRE 


1039 


























1037 il a i Nai 1 (10) ake 

Fig. 1037 gives us Werte acute angles, separated and flanked above and 
below by a complex of lines. The three dots in each angle hardly represent the 
Moon-god Sin (Thirty), but merely fill up the space. Somewhat similar are fig. 
1038 and fig. 1039, but here the angles are obtuse. In fig. 1040 we have a very 
simple set of alternating angles. 

In some of these cylinders the geometrical figure is balanced or reinforced 
by crude animal forms, as if the untrained artist were trying his ’prentice hand at 
drawing life. Such an example appears in fig. 1041. This cylinder is in two regis- 


VRAIN 


a 
Soe 
SSS I Or 





326 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


ters; the lower broad and filled with close cross lines, the upper showing probably 
two swans and a scorpion with also a crescent and a star. In fig. 1042, between 
two angles, pyramid-shaped and with cross-lines, there hangs from the summits 
a swing-like chain, above which is a heraldic bird with wings and legs spread. 
Another smaller cylinder, also in the Metropolitan Museum, has identically the 
same design, but a little smaller. 

Occasionally we see a design of coarse curves with little attempt at symmetry, 
as in fig. 1043. Cylinders of this type may or may not have the little cross-lines 
that fill up the interspaces. 

Occasionally an attempt at a more graceful geometric pattern appears, as in 
fig. 1044, where we have a sort of conventional flower of four petals, and alternating 
with the “flower” a sort of handle between two large forks, within which above 
and below we see a crescent and what may possibly represent the sun. In fig. 1045 





> 
a 


SNe 
eG se 


“71045 1047 
the “flower” is distorted, but the idea is the same; the remaining space is filled 


with a great double Ane which suggests a leaf, while a narrower register supplies 
a wide border of angles. Quite similar “flowers” appear on a vase of the Middle 
Minoan period from Crete, as may be seen figured in the “Annual” of the British 
School at Athens, 1903-04, p. 9; cf. also a larnax from Przsos, 7b., 1901-02, p. 247. 
The design in fig. 1046 is really a rude variation of the guilloche in three parallel 
lines. We have a more interesting example in fig. 1047 which almost seems to sug- 
gest Christian crosses, made of little squares, hanging down on each end of the open 
spaces between what we might imagine to be curtains drawn in the middle. This 
cylinder is of lapis-lazuli and is certainly quite late. 

As has been said, rude art may at any period in history exhibit itself in crude 
geometrical forms; but designs with angles and dots seem to characterize the so- 
called Early and Middle Minoan period. We may regard it as probable that the 
cylinders here considered prevailed rather at a time before Egyptian art had invaded 
the islands and the coasts of Asia very much, and that such cylinders may be as 
old as 2000 to 1500 B. C. 








” 


CHAPTER LVIII. 
MILITARY SCENES. 


It is often impossible to fix the country from which cylinders come which 
represent military scenes. They are not usually Babylonian (yet see figs. 97, 98) 
or Assyrian, but seem to be mostly either Persian or to come from one of the out- 
lying regions in the highlands north or west of Assyria. Something can be gathered 
from the fact that in these, and in the hunting scenes which seem allied to them, 
the stone on which they are cut is likely to be peculiar and to represent a quarry 
about which at some time geologists may be able to give us information. 










29 
iS Qo 
Nutt 


CLE 





CD 
——— 


7D) 
o TINS 


1051 1050 


Military scenes are frequent enough on the rock sculptures of the Archamenian 
period, but not on the cylinders. A few such, however, there are. One is to be 
seen in fig. 1048, a beautiful cylinder of banded agate. Here under the winged disk 
of Ahura-mazda a Persian soldier, holding a spear, leads three prisoners with hands 
bound behind their backs. The prisoners wear pointed helmets and close trousers, 
or greaves, while the soldier is in the usual Persian costume. 

A purely Persian scene of war we have in fig. 1049. Here the bearded soldier, 
with Persian garment and a feathered crown, and bow and quiver on his shoulder, 
strikes a kneeling and appealing enemy with his spear. The latter is elaborately 
clothed and wears a high helmet. Behind the soldier and before a palm-tree are 
four prisoners, their hands tied behind them and their necks held by a rope. 

The victorious soldier in fig. 1053 is also dressed in Persian trousers. Behind 
him he leads a helmeted prisoner with hands tied behind his back, and before him 
he strikes with his spear at a second similar helmeted enemy who carries a round 
shield; while between them kneels a third figure in the attitude of supplication. The 
conquered enemies may be Greek. There is an inscription of four or five Aramaic 
letters which doubtless represent the name of the military owner, Kantan or Kantar. 

327 


328 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


Another cylinder (fig. 1052) is of quartz crystal, somewhat battered. Under 
the winged figure of Ahura-mazda is a palm-tree. On the other side a figure in a 
Persian crown and garments drags a prisoner behind him, while before him he stabs 
in the head a foe dressed in a long close-fitting jacket, wearing a peaked helmet, 
holding an ax in his hand, and carrying a bow and quiver at his side. He seems 
to be dressed in a suit of armor, both body and legs. Behind this enemy is a lion. 
The dress of both the prisoner and the armed enemy is very peculiar. Under the 
winged disk in fig. 1051 are two figures fighting. One seizes his foe by the hair or 
helmet and with the other hand stabs him with a short sword. The other lifts an ax 
to strike his enemy, but is evidently too late. Behind each is another figure aiming 
an arrow. Apparently the two figures to the left are Persians. ‘They wear short 
jackets, in the top of which is held an ax for use, and one of them carries a quiver. 





105 
The lower part of the body, to below the knee, seems to have the Persian trousers. 


The two others do not wear the jackets, but long, loose trousers, and their quivers 
hang from their belts low down at their side. They represent some other nationality. 

The cylinder shown in fig. 1050 may not be Persian. It may represent one of 
the ruder tribes of north of Assyria or in Asia Minor and be earlier than the time 
of the Persian kings. A soldier drawing his bow is followed by the other soldiers, 
each carrying a bow and with one hand lifted over his head. Each is clad in a short 
garment for marching, held by a girdle whose tassels fall between his knees. There 
is a Babylonian inscription. 

The extraordinary seal shown in fig. 1054 is more probably of the Persian 
period, although not so certainly from the Persian territory. This is a beautiful 
carnelian cylinder, unusually slender in shape and with only half of the surface 
engraved. ‘There are on it two scenes of war, one above the other. In the upper 
an officer stands in advance of his company of six foot-soldiers and encourages 
them on to assault a company of four soldiers on horseback, who are fleeing, and 


MILITARY SCENES. 329 


the one behind, as he runs, turns back to shoot. In the next scene, which tells the 
result of the conflict, two of the horses are captured and held, one is escaping with 
his rider, and the other is galloping away riderless, while the leader pursues them. 
There are two short inscriptions in Aramaic characters which read: DY7NIN (or 
Owsnin) and jp13?, but which it is not easy to translate. They give the name of 
the owner and perhaps his office. Apparently we have here the pictured story of some 
proud incident in the life of the owner, who had been engaged as an officer in com- 
mand of foot-soldiers and had gained a victory over the mounted troops of the enemy. 

The question now arises, What is the nationality and period of the cylinder 
and its figured contestants? The character of the inscription, epigraphically, 
would make it at least as late as 600 B. C. The art suggests a Greek period, in its 
freedom. I should presume that it represents a scene in the time of the Persian 
control of Western Asia. 

No less does fig. 1055 appear to belong to a period when it begins to feel the 
Greek influence, it is drawn with such life. It is again a fight between a horseman 
and a foot-soldier, but the horseman seems to have the better of it, as his spear seems 
to reach his foe’s body despite his shield. ‘The footman also carries a spear and his 
helmet is adorned with a horsetail plume. He appears to be closely clad or naked. 
It would be easy to conceive of the horseman as a Persian fighting a Greek enemy. 

It is impossible to fix the origin of the cylinder shown in fig. 1056. The 
rudeness of the cutting with the wheel suggests that it is late. A soldier in a chariot 
with a charioteer draws a bow against a foe or beast, while a second lies dead under 
the horse. We have an interesting case in fig. 1057. Here we seem to see a foot-soldier 
pursuing, with an uplifted ax, a bending figure 
in a chariot, speeding his horses. ‘There is also 
a bird. But this cylinder seems to belong to an 
earlier Syrian period with Egyptian influence. It 
is not Egyptian, but Assyrian, influence, which 
we discover in fig. 1058. Here we have a soldier 
in a chariot, holding his bow, and a charioteer. 
His goddess Ishtar goes before him armed with (\ “4 Ss 
her bow and carried by a winged monster. Be- HUSA <A PUY FY 
hind the chariot is another bowman. Besides we 
see the lance of Marduk, the crescent of Sin, and the star of Ishtar. We have another 
military scene in fig. 1059. “Two helmeted soldiers on horseback are followed by 
another soldier on foot, who carries a shield and spear in one hand, while with the 
other he swings what may be a sling. Small objects fill up the spaces, a crescent, 
a man fighting an animal, a monkey, and a scorpion. In fig. 1060 an archer in a 
chariot is fighting with an archer on foot, while a dead body is under the bull which 
draws the chariot. It would seem that the horse was not in use when this cylinder 
was made. It is described as of colored marble, and the border lines indicate that 
it belongs to an Assyrian rather than Babylonian region, and it may be of a period 
as much as 2000 B.C. The four spokes to the wheels also suggest an early period. 

Another smaller cylinder may be Syro-Hittite (fig. 1061). All the figures are 
in short garments. One grasps another by the wrist and threatens him with a 
club. A third figure holds up his two hands in supplication and is followed by the 
fourth figure whose action is not easy to explain. We have in fig. 1062 a confused 
battle scene, of an Assyrian period. 








CHAPTER LIX. 


HUNTING SCENES. 


Certain cylinders with hunting scenes are surely Persian, one example being 
that of Darius, fig. 1104; of others we can not be positive. For such a vigor- 
ous cylinder, lacking all Assyrian conventionality, see fig. 597. The student may 
equally be inclined to assign some of them to the region of the Armenians. It 
will be helpful to learn from geologists from what region the stone comes of which 
they are cut; for some of them are like similar military cylinders, of peculiar 
mottled jasper, such as we do not find in the Babylonian and Assyrian seals. 

As might naturally be expected, the dress of hunters is much simpler than 
that of men in their dignified garments of peace. They are usually short, and 
fastened with a girdle, such as we have seen in fig. 1059 of the scenes of war. There 
are about these designs a vigor and life which are unusual and suggest a less con- 
ventional art than we find prevailing in ordinary religious scenes. 















Ces 





Ey h 
MN ; 
ee er LY 

1067 





WO 


Zz su 


1066 





1065 

But there can be no question that fig. 1063 is Persian, and the figure of the 
hunter is conventional and lifeless enough. He stands motionless, in his long 
trousers, with his spear held upright before him and his bow and quiver on his 
shoulders, while a wild boar, quite vigorously drawn, rushes at him. But if he does 
not protect himself he is protected by the supreme deity, for the winged disk of 
Ahura-mazda, in the extended Persian style, is before him. Very close to this is 
fig. 1064, where the hunter is accompanied by a dog. 

Equally, fig. 1065 is certainly Persian. ‘The figure to the left wears the Persian 
crown, jacket, and lower garment, and in the conventional way he lifts a reversed 
lion with one hand, while the other holds the short sword. But the other figure is 

330 


HUNTING SCENES. ool 


of much slenderer build, and in hunter’s dress, as he seizes a bull by the horn, while 
his other hand has no weapon but a whip. This case may encourage us to see 
Persian work in other hunting scenes where there is no Persian dress. 

In Lajard x1x, 3 is a Persian scene. The hunter, with crown and character- 
istic garments, aims his arrow at a lion while another 
lion lies prostrate before him, and a dog, or quite as 
likely a bull, is between the hunter and the lion. In fig. 
1067 an archer pursues and shoots at two fleeing ibexes. 

The peculiar tree with thickened trunk, on a 
mountain, which we see in fig. 1066 and have already 
seen in fig. 676, appears to belong to Persian art, 008 
although this is not certain. Here we have no figure of the hunter, simply a lion 
pursuing a stag, while an eagle above is watching a chance to feed on the carcass. 
The smaller, simpler trees, unbranched, are seen growing near the foot of the larger 
tree. his seal is of a peculiar pink chalcedony. In fig. 1069 the hunter attacks 





SZ IS 





1071 
an ibex with a scimitar, while between them is the same tree with a crooked trunk. 


The reader will notice the peculiar sun, lacking the circle, but preserving the cross 
and the alternate water-streams. In fig. 1070 the tree, on a mountain, is between 
the archer and the wild bison at which he directs his arrow. We see in fig. 1071 

. the same tree, but, although allied to the 
cylinders previously shown, this is hardly a 
hunting scene, for the man before the ibex 
and the tree holds a long standard upright, 
at the top of which is a trifoliate object. 
Here the emblem of the sun, like a Greek 
cross, such as we saw in the Kassite seals, is 
to be observed. In fig. 1072 there is no 
hunter—only the two ibexes on the mountains, before a tree with radiating 
branches, under the radiating sun, while behind the ibexes is a heraldic eagle. 
This design might quite as well be interpreted as showing an example of animals 
before the sacred tree. There may be some question whether fig. 1073 is wholly 





332 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


a hunting scene, or whether it is not rather mythological; but it may be well to 
include it here for the sake of showing the form of the ax with which the hero hunter 
attacks the bull which he has seized by the horn. 

We have again a hunting scene in fig. 1074. ‘The archer on his knee aims 
at a stag, while an eagle waits for the prey. In fig. 1075, under a Persian disk 
of Ahura-mazda, with long wings, a hunter on horseback thrusts his spear at 
an ibex and is aided by a dog. In fig. 1076 a similar hunter on horseback flings 
his spear at a lion; and in fig. 1077 a horseman spears a bear. This is the only 
case I know where a bear is figured on the cylinders. ‘The art appears Persian. 





Oto 





as o¢ 


7) un 


1083 
In fig. 1078 the horseman spears an ibex. Both horse and ibex are drawn very 


stout, as in much of the Persian art. Persian also appears to be fig. 1079, where the 
hunter on horseback flings his spear at a gazelle. This cylinder is interesting for 
the unusual arrangement of the inscription. 

We have an extraordinary and unique scene in the cylinder shown in fig. 1080. 
Here a hunter with Persian crown and garments is mounted on a camel and hurls 
his spear at a lion. I do not recall any other case in which the camel appears on a 
cylinder. In fig. 1081 the mounted archer shoots at a stag and a similar seal may 
be seen in de Clercq’s “ Catalogue,”’ No. 362. In fig. 1082 the hunter has dismounted 
from his horse and spears a boar. There is an Aramaic inscription of four letters, 
which Levy (“‘Siegeln und Gemmen,” I. p. 16) reads “ Panzuk,” which he regards 
as a Persian form ending in k. In fig. 1083 the hunter has a charioteer and turns 
back to shoot his arrow at an uncertain animal, while in a lower register are a tree, 








HUNTING SCENES. 333 


a spiral, anda stag. This appears to be a very early cylinder of a northern type. 
There is unusual vigor in the design shown in fig. 1088, where the archer in his 
swift chariot pursues a fleeing bull. 

We have in fig. 1084 a more elaborate but rudely drawn design. It is in three 
registers, of which the middle one gives a hunting scene. The hunter is in his chariot 
and is shooting at half a dozen animals and birds before him. One seems to have 
fallen under his horse, while an arrow sticks in the body of a bird above. The 
upper and lower registers are filled with stags. 

Some of these hunting scenes are quite rough in execution, but cut very deep. 
Such a case is fig. 1086, where a hunter in a feathered hat shoots with his bow at an 


PW Pc ye: wee 


oe, WY Sie v Lo 





1091 1092 

ibex. The star within the crescent represents the sun, as the star of Ishtar is sepa- 
rately engraved. A similar one, and with much the same design, equally coarse 
and deeply engraved, is shown in fig. 1087; this is of terra-cotta. Not quite so 
rude and also probably of the latest period from which cylinders appear, perhaps 
even of the Sassanian period, is fig. 1085. The archer shoots at a lion. Between 
them, above, is a star of late pattern, and below is a peculiar and set form of what 
had its origin in a sacred tree. 

There may be added a few cylinders which give us simply the wild animals 
with no hunter. An attractive example is shown in fig. 1089. ‘There is a tree, much 
of the style we have seen in figs. 1066, 1070, but larger and more naturalistic, and a 
stag walking at ease. Above it is an inscription in Babylonian cuneiform, from which 
we learn that the owner was devoted to the Assyrian god Ashur. In fig. 1090 we 


334 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


have, with the crooked trunk of a branching tree on a mountain, a very vigorous 
representation of a bounding stag. Near the tree are three small branches or 
plants, with a bird resting on one of them. ‘The vigor and beauty of this design 
could hardly be surpassed. 

The arrangement of the cuneiform inscription, at the top and bottom of the 
design, is peculiar in fig. 1091. ‘The inscription is not reversed in the cutting, 
which seems to show that it is an amulet as well as a seal. The design shows a 





lion attacking a bull. There is also a palm-tree, on one side of which sits a 
dog, while on the other is a locust in a human vertical position. ‘There is also 
the lozenge (Egyptian eye?). In fig. 1092 we have a leaping bull, with long 
horn, like the aurochs, and a large rayed circle and the seven dots of the 
Igigi. ‘This is comparatively late. Fig. 1093 shows us two lions, of Persian style, 
facing each other. Fig. 1094 gives us two lions attacked by four dogs, the figures 
drawn with considerable rude spirit; this is an unusually thick cylinder. Fig. 















rN 


SSS 
“Leda 








ee 1098 


1095 is engraved with the utmost coarseness and represents a cow and calf. It is 
interesting solely because it is of a peculiar light serpentine of the sort of which de 
Morgan found several larger cylinders at Susa, and of the same shape as this. 
Another cylinder, extremely rude and very deeply cut, is shown in fig. 1096. This 
is not clearly a hunting scene, although behind (or before) the chariot is a lion, as 
well as a man and a scorpion. Fig. 1097 shows nothing but an extremely well- 
drawn humped bull. In 1097a the Persian winged disk is over a wild boar, and 


HUNTING SCENES. 335 


between the boar and a rampant ibex is the plant which may be the silphium. In 
fig. 1098 we have a well-drawn figure of a humped cow suckling her calf. This 
seal is clearly of the Persian period, as shown by the winged disk by the crescent. 
Another very similar, but without the disk and 
crescent, belongs to the British Museum. In fig. 
1099, which is also drawn with great vigor, we 
have a lion and bull in fight. The cylinder allows 
a double action to the bull, which, fallen on one 
knee, is attacking the lion before him, while it 
kicks at the same lion behind. This cylinder is 
of variegated red sard and chalcedony, and I 
believe came from a northern Armenian region. 

It may be allowable to include in this chap- 
ter several cylinders on which we see mytho- 
logical, winged creatures fighting wild animals, 
probably not Persian, but belonging to one of 
the more northern outlying countries. One such 
is seen in fig. 1100, where a composite “dragon” 
has forced a bull down on its knees. Over a 
kneeling worshiper is a winged disk, apparently , 
not Persian, also a six-pointed star and another ~— i100 
of many points. What the square object is under the winged disk it is not 
easy to Say. 

Fig. 1101 gives us simply a winged lion fighting a bull; and in fig. 1102 we 
have it reversed, a winged bull fighting a lion. 


TMU LLL 


‘1103. 


























1101 
We may conclude this series with fig. 1103, where an archer with his youthful 
attendant aims at a mark. This reminds us of the biblical story of Jonathan, with 
a lad as armor-bearer, aiming at a mark to give information to his friend David 
of Saul’s attitude to David, as the story is told in I Samuel 20: 20-24. ‘This is an 
unusual instance to show the construction of the arrows, as five of them are fully 
drawn. 


CHAPTER Lx. 


PERSIAN CYLINDERS: MYTHOLOGICAL AND HERALDIC. 


The remains of the Achezmenian period are numerous enough to make it easy 
to recognize most of the cylinders that belong to it. In the archaic period the art 
of Elam was precisely the same as that of Chaldea; but we know nothing of the art 
of Northern Persia of that date. But at the time of the Achzmenian kings the seals 
became numerous and characteristic. Especially peculiar is the dress, with the 
= garment covering the lower 
= ee part of the body closed and 
= os drawn up in front almost to 
Gia me represent trousers, such as 
we find worn ieaee in the 
period of the Sassanian 
kings. [he crown was a 
specially Persian headdress, 
and is worn by the gods and 
kings. The figures of ani- 
mals, and to some extent of 

Tioa men, are stout and lack the 
agile slenderness of the Babylonian art. ‘The designs are also meager. Very few 
gods are represented. The chief design is that of a god or hero, the Assyrian cross 
between a Gilgamesh and a Marduk, fighting a lion or other naturalistic or myth- 
ological animal; but the lion was the favorite. 

In the forefront of any. account of Persian seals must always be placed fig. 1104, 
from the seal of Darius in the British Museum. It is a unique design and shows 
us the king with his crown, in his hunting chariot with his charioteer driving. Before 
him is a rampant lion under a palm-tree, at which the king aims an arrow, while 


\ 










By 
y 


Wy 








Bes 
) 
yi 
Wr 
Fi 


i 
ZN 
£9) 


VV TART 


I 





NyNy 
=" 










AN 


NII 


nS 





another lion lies under the horse’s feet. Above, protecting the king, is Ashur, or, 
to give the Persian name, Ahura-mazda, with the human bust. ‘The inscription 
reads, in Persian and Babylonian cuneiform: “I am Darius, the great king.” The 
stoutness of the horse and the lion is to be observed. 

But the usual Persian design is much simpler. It may be nothing but the crowned 
hero, with his short sword and some accessory objects, perhaps. In fig. 1105 the lion 
is rampant and under the winged disk is a wheel. But in fig. 1106 the hero, or god, 
lifts the lion by its hind leg. Fig. 1107 1s interesting for the peculiar tree. In fig. 1108 
the hero attacks two lions rampant (cf. Lajard, “Mithra,” plate xrx, g) and in fig. 

336 


PERSIAN CYLINDERS: MYTHOLOGICAL AND HERALDIC. oon 


1109 the same two lions reversed, while underneath are two running sphinxes, and 
opposite on the seal is the winged disk over a palm-tree. Similar is fig. 1111, except 
that the winged disk is over the hero and the tree is very simple. In fig. 1110 there 
are the two lions held reversed, and a sphinx apparently looking on with favor. 

Instead of a lion, the hero may attack a bull, as in fig. 1112, where a human- 
headed scorpion is the spectator. But the fight with the wingless bull is not as 
frequent as with the lion. Occasionally it is the ibex whom the hero attacks, as in 
fig. 1113, where one is seized with each hand and a scorpion-man watches over the 
contest. In fig. 1114 a god like Bes hugs two antelopes to him, while under the 
winged disk are two composite “ dragons.”’ 





16 


LE 


Y PILEB PR... 






But more frequently the contest is with winged lions or bulls, or composite 
animals. In fig. 1115 two winged bulls are the object of attack and there is an inter- 
esting plant growing from a stand. A similar example will be found in Lajard’s 
“Culte de Mithra,” plate xv, fig. 3. More elaborate is fig. 1118, where the god 
stands on two sphinxes and the space is filled by a small seated archer and a curi- 
ous design of crescents and hanging branches. 

The sphinx is a favorite object. It is the lion-bodied sphinx which we see in 
fig. 1117 and in fig. 1116. In the latter case the hero has not the usual Persian 
trousers; but we shall find other cases, as in fig. 1130. We have in fig. 1119 a 
sphinx with the body of a bull and a peculiar horn or cap, with the additional 
figures of a worshiper before an altar and a god. Above the altar is a cock, which 
never appears in the earlier Babylonian art. It is to be noticed that, besides the 
vase in one hand, the god holds a flower in the other, very much like some of the 
late Assyrian figures seen in figs. 688, 696. This can hardly be anything else than 
the baresma of the Zend-Avesta, carried in the hand by gods and priests in service. 
In fig. 1120 the sphinx has the body of a bull and wears the crown, an ibex turns 
its head to look from the other side of a palm-tree, and we see a crescent and the 
flower observed in fig. 1114. A remarkable variation we have in fig. 1121, where 

22 


338 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


the entire design is reversed and duplicated; a winged god seizes two sphinxes, 
and a bull’s head is in the field. 

Perhaps more usual is the “dragon,” a modification of Tiamat, with a lion’s body, 
an eagle’s hind legs and talons, and a bull’s horns. Such a case is given in fig. 1122. 
An almost identical design is shown in Lajard’s Mithra, plate x1x, fig. 7. In fig. 1123 
the “dragons” are rather grifins and the winged disk rests over the crowned hero. 














1119 





Quite frequently the absolute symmetry is varied, against the older practice, 
by having the two animals, on the two sides, different. In fig. 1124 there is an ibex 
on one side and a lion-bodied sphinx on the other. In fig. 1125 a bull-bodied 
sphinx is balanced by a “dragon” and there is an Aramean inscription which 
reads: “ Parshandat, ‘son of Artadatan™ (Levy, Phon. Stud, 1 p. 40; ¢. his 
“Siegel und Gemmen,”’ 1, p. 18). Levy is wrong in following de Vogiié in supposing 
the last letter is part of the griffin’s tail. In fig. 1126 a lion is balanced by an ibex 
and there is a cock over a tree. We have a somewhat different combination in fig. 
1127, where one hero in Persian dress attacks a lion 
and another in a short garment fights a bull. 

We have observed that where the hero fights a single 
foe his weapon is the short sword or dagger; but he may 
also use the bow, as does the king in fig. 1104. We have 

such a case in fig. 1128, where the hero has slain one lion 
_. and aims his arrow at another, while a dog is before him. 
my ~ In fig. 1129 he attacks with his bow a lion which was 
about to seize an 1bex. The contest in fig. 1130 can hardly be called a hunting 
scene, for there are two rampant ibexes, at one of which the hunter, not in the 
usual Persian costume, hurls his spear. Above are the sun (which has not yet 
quite lost its water-streams), the crescent, and the star, while we see a pecyliar 
tree, characteristic of Persian cylinders, but perhaps not found on those of earlier 
date. It has a thickened trunk and a round mass of irregular branches, and appears 
to grow on a mountain. We have seen other examples of this tree, particularly 
in hunting scenes and also in fig. 676. 

The design may be made more decorative by including a large circular crescent 
between the god and the lion. Such is the case in fig. 1131. Here the archer, who 








7 
ZB ISS 
USS 






eee 





MS 
ab 








PERSIAN CYLINDERS: MYTHOLOGICAL AND HERALDIC. 339 


hardly seems to be a principal god, appears doubly protected by the winged disk 
above him and the figure of the god between the circle of the sun and the crescent. 
But when the god is thus introduced into the disk as part of the main design, instead 
of presiding above, the hero usually disappears. Such is the case in figs. 1132, 1133. 
Here the crescent and the circle of the sun are not separated, but are continuous. 
Above in fig. 1132 1s Ahura-mazda, with the characteristically long Persian wings, 
which are supported by the arms of the two four-winged, bull-bodied figures. In 





UN) 


1127 


fig. 1134 we have the same sort of crescent circle, with the included god and, above, 
the winged disk; while on each side is a bird, and the remaining space is given to a 
simple ‘sacred tree. We have a decided variation of this design in fig. 1136, where 
the crescent circle is reduced to the mere crescent and the included god is developed 
with four wings and the tail of a bird, as in the winged disk. On each side of the 
god stands a soldier with spear held upright before him, and bow, arrows, and quiver 





hanging behind his back, while the two spears and the cords from the winged disk 
above form a sort of recess and arch to inclose the winged god. The design shown 
in fig. 1134a may belong to this period, although the garments are quite Assyrian. 
We have a peculiar case in fig. 1135, where the god, as archer shooting a lion, has 


the lower part of his body that of a fish, perhaps. 


340 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


In a number of cases there are simply the animals, or sphinxes, etc., in heraldic 
pose, but with no human figure. In fig. 1137 two human-headed scorpions stand 
under the winged disk and before a fire-altar. In fig. 1138 the two human-headed 
scorpions are under the Persian winged disk and between them is a Phenician 
inscription. In fig. 1139 two griffins face each other. In fig. 1141 there is a single 
sphinx, with cuneiform inscription. ‘There is an Aramean inscription under the 
wings of the disk in fig. 1140 and under the disk are two sphinxes; between them is 
a small sacred tree or flower, and behind them a palm-tree, while above appears the 
crescent. In fig. 1142 we 
have two crowned sphinxes 
before a columnar altar with 
floriated summit, and above 
is the figure of Ahura-mazda. 
In this class we may put fig. 
1143, with the very unusual 
design of a winged horse, 
with a rare arrangement of 
the cuneiform inscription. 

Two Persian warriors, 
with bows, arrows, and 
quiver over their shoulders, 
as in figs. 1048, 1049, are 
seen in fig. 1144, an exquisite cylinder. Both figures carry the baresma in one hand, 
and between them is a fire-altar, while above is Ahura-mazda. Somewhat similar, 
but much ruder, is fig. 1145. A form of altar appears, and a worshiper with the 
baresma, before a standing god. An evident fire-altar is figured in fig. 1146 where 
one of the two figures seems to be stirring the flame and above is Ahura-mazda. 






1139 





lige 








1143 





Ti fee oer Te 
We have seen in fig. 1114 what looks like the Egyptian Bes strangling lions. 
In fig. 1147 we have Bes under the winged disk, in its extreme Persian extent, carry- 
ing the baresma in each hand, while on each side is a Persian figure with both hands 
lifted to support the wings. There is a very rare inscription in Persian cuneiform. 
The cylinders considered in this chapter are, with the exception of the first, 
religious in character. Those of a somewhat different style, which we have seen in 
the two previous chapters, have to do with war and the chase, but for the most part 
seem to belong to the same Persian period. 


CHAPTER LXI. 
CYLINDERS WITH PHENICIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 


We have already seen several cylinders with Phenician, or Aramean, inscrip- 
tions—for instance figs. 684, 1050, 1053, 1054, 1082, 1125, and 1141. They belong, 
for the most part, to the Persian period and might properly be nearly all classified 
with Persian seals. Inasmuch as the earliest-known Phenician inscriptions do not 
run back of a period from goo to 1000 B. C., we can not expect to find any cylinders 
with such inscriptions of an early period. While such inscribed cylinders may be 
possibly found which belong to over 600 B. C. they are more likely to be 400 or 500 
B.C. Phenician inscriptions have been found in Assyria of the eighth century B. C. 

We are here treating solely of cylinders having Phenician inscriptions, from 
whatever geographical region. The territory of Phenicia had long been under 
Babylonian or Egyptian control before the prevalence of the Phenician script. 
We have seen, in figs. 805 and 806, two cylinders inscribed in cuneiform characters 


Yh 
ow 


SS 
Liza 
TR 


p 
4 Bs S 
es ican 
) 
ni 
i 


3. Se 





1152 7153 1150 

with the names of a father and a son living in Sidon, and doubtless many of the 
Syro-Hittite cylinders already described had their origin in Phenicia. But there 
was no peculiar Phenician glyptic art. Phenicia was but a province in great 
empires which had a general culture. It is therefore impossible for us to differentiate 
Phenician cylinders by their art, and the purpose in this chapter is simply to gather 
a number of those which are notable chiefly for their inscriptions. 

Among those that are plainly Persian are several which represent scenes in 
hunting or war. Of such we have already seen figs. 1053, 1054, 1082, 1125. Among 
those which, clearly Persian in style, represent mythological scenes accompanied 
by inscriptions may be mentioned fig. 1148, where the god, as a hunter on horseback, 
spears a grifin. The Aramean inscription reads, “Belonging to Kenatgam.”’ 

Other cylinders with Aramean inscriptions show more of the Assyrian than 
the Persian influence, but may equally belong to the Achzemenian period. The 
garment of the god in fig. 1149 is Assyrian. The inscription reads: “Hartaka.” 


341 


S40 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


The broken cylinder shown in fig. 1150 still carries part of an inscription, of which 
the letters kaph, daleth, and perhaps ayin seem to appear. The design is of a bull 
and a lion, rampant, fighting, while between them is an uncertain object shaped 
like a heart, with the lines at the lower angle crossed. In fig. 1151 the god seizes 
two sphinxes, and there is also the lozenge. ‘The inscription reads, “Belonging to 
Elgehab.” In fig. 1152 the god in Assyrian dress lifts an ibex by the horn and his 
other hand holds his weapon. The inscription of six letters reads . . . melek. 

We have been familiar, in the study of the Tree of Life, with the design seen 
in fig. 1153. Over a very much conventionalized sacred tree is the triad-winged 
Ashur, supported by two human-headed monsters. On each side stands the wor- 
shiper. Another extraordinary divine figure, in front view, evidently copied after 
the figure of Gilgamesh, carries two stags and two ibexes. The inscription seems 
to read: “Belonging to Madbarag.”’ The final letter is not observed by Rawlinson 
and Levy. Much like this is fig. 684, which lacks Gilgamesh, and one of the wor- 
shipers brings a goat. There is a star over a crescent, and also the oval “eye.” 
The inscription may possibly be ‘‘Belonging to Achatan.” 














= 
iat) 


ay 






fi 
t 


it 


Mi 
SK @ 


=" 
‘a 





1156 1157 


An excellent cylinder is to be seen in fig. 1154. Under the triad-disk of Ashur 
a worshiper on one knee grasps in his hands the cords of divine influence which 
connect him with the god. On one side of the kneeling figure is a modification of 
the crux ansata, and on the other side a large wedge. On one side of this design 
stands the same worshiper in the attitude of adoration, and on the other the winged 
bird-headed genius holding in one hand the cone (modified by the work with the 
drill) and in the other the basket. ‘There are also a crescent, a dog, and a monkey. 
The inscription, so far as it is clear, seems to read, “ Belonging to Shatach.”” An 
interesting cylinder (fig. 1155) shows a sacred tree under the winged disk, with a 
sphinx on one side and a rampant ibex on the other, and a worshiper on each side. 
There is the inscription “Belonging to Sargad.” 

An inscription of five lines is to be seen on the cylinder shown in fig. 1156, 
where the figure to the right seems to have been later engraved. Of the other two 
a worshiper stands before a crowned god. ‘The inscription is read by de Vogiié: 


“Belonging to Akdaban, son of Gabrad, the Eunuch; which he offered to Hadad.” 


CYLINDERS WITH PHENICIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 045 


In fig. 1157, in the center, a rude winged disk is over what takes the place of 
the sacred tree, though it looks more like the thunderbolt of Adad. Close to it stand 
a small worshiper, and on each side a larger protecting winged genius. There are 
three lines of inscription which read: “Yarphael, son of Horadad,” the name of 
Yarphael being repeated. 

The presence of a Phenician (or Aramean) inscription is a proof of a later 
age and also a presumption of an eastern origin. On the western coast the cylinder 
prevailed until perhaps tooo B.C., about which time it was replaced by the scara- 
boid on which we have the earliest-known Phenician inscriptions, like that one 
which bears the name of Shallum, with Egyptian objects (Levy, “Siegel und Gem- 
men,” plate 1, fig. 1). But farther east, where the Assyrian and Persian influence 
controlled, the cylinder continued in use, generally large in size and made of chalce- 
dony, the Aramean language being much in use, especially in trade. ‘These cylinders 
are usually rather coarsely engraved with the wheel and the writing is, therefore, 
somewhat difficult to read. 


CHAPTER LAXII. 


CYLINDERS FROM CYPRUS. 


At an extremely early period the Babylonian influence appears to have come 
into Cyprus. A cylinder with the name of Bingani-Sharali, King of Agade, son of 
Naram-Sin and grandson of Sargon I., is said to have been found in Cyprus (see 
figs. 27 and 181). Another cylinder found in Cyprus, of the same early date, if 
not earlier, is given in fig. 1365. Another cylinder with Babylonian inscription, 
found in Cyprus by General di Cesnola, is given in fig. 1158. The inscription, as 
read by Professor Craig, is as follows: “Irba-Ishtar, son of Ilu-badu, servant of 
the god Naram-Sin.”’ The sign for god precedes the name of Naram-Sin, the famous 
conqueror who ruled at Agade. But the cylinder is by no means of the age of 
Naram-Sin. The principal figures may be as old as 2000 B. C. perhaps, but the 
smaller objects appear to have been added at a later period. ‘This is one of those 
cases in which we have two separate figures of the god who seems at different epochs 
to have represented Adad, or Ramman. With them is the goddess Shala. 





; 













te 


RUGS 
mY 

» 

i : 
mf) 

y 

(Murti 


a 





we A at 
Tt 
TES “Je 
1161 cae CAT ERS LICE | 1160 
In fig. 1159 we have a cylinder of the usual hematite, excavated by Ohnefalsch- 
Richter near Nicosia in Cyprus. Bezold (Zeitschr. fiir Keilsch, 11, p. 191) 1s inclined 
to regard the inscription as of about the ninth century B. C., and the cylinder as 
purely Assyro-Babylonian. It contains the name of the owner and of the god 
Adad, whom he worships. It may, however, be much earlier than this. The style 
seems very nearly Babylonian (not Assyrian), but the design of the sun, with an 
included circle, is entirely foreign, and implies that the meaning of the properly 
included four rays and alternate streams was not understood. The object, what- 
ever it is, over the smaller rampant animal appears not to be Babylonian. Probably 
this cylinder had a local origin, or belonged to the Syrian region, although the 
figures of the standing Shamash, Ramman-Adad, and their complementary goddess 
are purely Babylonian. We should not, however, have expected the two animals 
to be thus crowded meaninglessly in between the deities. ‘This cylinder, found in 
344 





CYLINDERS FROM CYPRUS, 345 


a grave, mounted after the Cypriote style with gold caps, is further proof of Baby- 
lonian influence and control from a very early period and continued for many cen- 
turies. It is quite certain that the rule over the seacoast claimed by Lugal-zaggisi 
and Sargon from a period of three or four thousand years B. C. must have in- 
fluenced also Cyprus. This cylinder may even go back as far as 2000 B. C. 

Equally Babylonian in general style is the cylinder shown in fig. 1160. It 
shows other than Babylonian influence solely in the object held in the hand of the 
worshiper, which is probably a lotus flower. This cylinder is probably quite 1000 
B. C. Another beautiful cylinder, of a bluish chalcedony, also found by General 
di Cesnola in Cyprus, is shown in fig. 516. Its material suggests the Persian 
period, but the inscription in eight lines is in the Kassite style. 

A small number of the cylinders said to have been found in Cyprus are, as 
might be expected, of the Syro-Hittite style. Such is that shown in fig. 1161, where 
we have sphinxes, and, what is unusual, two bulls fighting. Another such, quite 
Syro-Hittite in character, is fig. 1162, with two seated deities and a crux ansata 





between them, a procession of three figures behind them, and an ibex and two 
sphinxes in an upper register. Another is to be seen in fig. 1163, with two sphinxes 
and three figures in procession. 

Two cylinders are to be mentioned which seem to have a Cypriote inscription. 
One is seen in fig. 1164. The inscription is read by Isaac H. Hall as perhaps “Ta- 
ka-na-e-ro-ti,” which may be a proper name. The design is extremely rude and 
shows three upright figures, an ibex held by one of them, and a dog. Another (fig. 
1165) is given by Sayce, who says it is from the bronze-age cemetery at Paraskevi, 
and therefore very old; he reads it: “ Mo-ro-ta-se.”” On two other cylinders Dr. Hall 
thinks a single character may appear, but this is too doubtful to depend upon. 

But the multitude of cylinders from Cyprus appear to be of a much later date. 
They have almost entirely lost the distinct Babylonian type and are rudely engraved, 
with no artistic feeling or nicety; and, what is to be noticed, they seldom have any 
inscriptions, Babylonian, Hittite, Cretan, Phenician, or Egyptian. This seems to 
imply a period of long continuance when Cyprus was free from Babylonian control 
and equally from Egyptian. Indeed one is surprised to see so little Egyptian influ- 


346 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


ence in the art, which appears to be largely native. A few are to be excepted of the 
earlier type, such as have been mentioned above, which are either purely Babylonian 
or Syro-Phenician. One such with an inscription is given in fig. 1166, which appar- 
ently imitates Egyptian signs. It is of terra-cotta and contains an Egyptian human 
figure with a hawk’s head before a lotus. In fig. 1167, which seems to be Cypriote, 
the figure holding two lotuses to his nose is clearly Egyptian, while the sacred tree 1s 
as clearly Assyrian. 

As to the date of the Cypriote cylinders we have a remarkable statement by 
Ohnefalsch-Richter, who says (“Kypros,” Text, p. 283, note): 


None of these cylinder-seals, indeed, no cylinder-seals at all, have been hitherto found in Greco- 
Pheenician tombs of the Iron Age in Cyprus. The hundreds of seal-cylinders which have come to light 
were all (like those I myself excavated) in tombs of the Copper-Bronze Age. LL, P. di Cesnola did 
not find in Greco-Pheenician tombs of the Iron Age at Kurium (still less in a temple treasure) the 
cylinders he publishes (Cesnola—Stern, plates Lxxv—Lxxvim) as part of his Kurium find, and A. P. di Ces- 
nola did not find at Salamis the cylinders he publishes as coming from Salamis (<* Salaminia,’’ plates x1 to 
xv, 51, and figs, 113-123). As all the cylinders relating to the discovery, of which we have trustworthy 
information, were discovered in Pre-Graco-Phcenician tombs of the Copper-Bronze Period, we are justified 
in assigning those published by the two Cesnolas to this early date. ‘The latest specimens can scarcely be 
later than 1000 B.C, 


I am inclined to accept this conclusion as to the date of the Cypriote cylinders. 
While they have had a local development, they had their origin, of course, on the 
neighboring continent; and the types from which they were drawn do not seem 
to have been much developed. In size and shape they are rather Babylonian than 
Assyrian in style, and so show, like the Syro-Hittite seals, the influence of a period 
antedating the speciai Assyrian influence, or, indeed, that of the Kassite period. 
It is perhaps as much as can be said that they probably belong to the period of 
from 2000 to 1000 B. C. 

The motives employed in the Syro-Hittite art will be found in the Cypriote 
seals, but rudely engraved in a linear style. They are mostly animals, very poorly 
drawn, or men, or trees. The occasional heraldic arrangement of two animals in 
front of a tree, or other object, is in the prevailing style of the Syrian coast. A single 
cylinder may be mentioned which possibly gives a more exact attribution of time. 
It is shown in fig. 1168. A couple of personages stand before a disk with rays. 
These rays shoot out in every direction below the two horizontal ones in a style 
which finds a parallel only in the Egyptian solar disk introduced as the emblem of 
the one God worshiped by the heretic king Amenophis IV. It will be remembered 
that the disk as worshiped by him consisted simply of the circle of the sun, with 
neither asps nor wings, but with lines of rays, each of which ended in a hand of 
benediction holding the emblem of life. In this Cypriote seal we seem to have this 
same idea, and it 1s the only case known to us in which the solar disk is provided with 
such rays, unless it be the same in fig. 1014. It is a fair presumption that this seal 
belongs to the period of Amenophis IV. or is of about that time. We have no knowl- 
edge whence Amenophis IV. derived his form of the solar disk with rays. It seems 
to have originated with him, but it is possible that it came with his mother from 
Syria, although we do not know of any such form of the disk in that region and no 
other case is known out of Egypt. Of course it would have been impossible in this 
cylinder to develop the rays with the hands and the crux ansata. 


CYLINDERS FROM CYPRUS. BAT. 


The design, showing a tree with an animal each side of it, is seen in fig. 1169. 
lt is to be observed that one of the two ibexes lifts his foot as if in adoration before 
the sacred tree, and that a third ibex in the field does the same thing. Among the 
other objects are the sun in the crescent and the goat’s head, both familiar in Syro- 
Hittite art, the latter characteristically Hittite. In fig. 1170 what we may here call 
the Tree of Life might about as well be the cuttle-fish, as it sometimes appears on 
the seals (see fig. 798). Here we see an ibex seated each side of the “tree,” under 
a guilloche. There are also the naked goddess and two figures holding a standard. 

Somewhat more frequent is another form of the sacred tree, if we may so call 
that which has sometimes been called, as by Sayce, the symbol of the Paphian god- 
dess. We have an illustration of it in fig. 1171. The “tree” consists of a column 
(which has been taken to be phallic, without sufficient evidence), with a pair of 
curving branches at the bottom and at the middle and surmounted with a crown 








1176 1174 eet iae =e erage Ny I17S: 

of short radiating lines. In this case there is a little cross at the top, but this is the 
single case. On one side of the “tree” is a griffin with both front hands lifted. 
There is also a bull’s head. Another similar design is given in fig. 1172, where the 
eriffin lifts but one hand. In fig. 1173 the griffin is replaced by a sphinx, and in 
figs. 1174, 1175, by a lion, and they lift one foot in homage. For other forms of this 
“sacred tree” see figs. 1176, 1177, 1178. In the last case one will observe the 
flaring flounced garment of the female figure and compare it with the similar 
feminine garment worn in the Mycenzan period, as seen often (cf. Perrot and 
Chipiez, “Gréce Primitive,” figs. 387, 388, and T’sountas-Manatt, “Mycenean 
Age,” figs. 65, 66, 84, 155). We can not fix the date of this style of chiton, perhaps, 
further than to say that it prevailed in the second chiliad B. C. Other examples 
of this form of the “tree” may be seen in Cesnola’s “Cypriote Antiquities,”’ 111, 
CX Xe sas . 

The griffin and the sphinx are frequent objects, as we have already seen. In 
fig. 1179 a heraldic lion faces the sphinx which, as is not unusual, has its head 


348 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


adorned with a tuft. There is also a female figure with a chiton somewhat of the 
Mycenzan type, although not flounced. In fig. 1180 the griffin is seated and there 
is a standing female figure, also a bull’s head. Almost the same is repeated in 
“Salaminia,” plate xiv, fig. 42. In fig. 1181 the woman grasps the tail of the 
griffin, as in fig. 1182 she seizes the tail of a lion. 

There are some cases in which we meet a seated figure, apparently feminine. 
An unusually interesting one is that in fig. 1183. There is a high altar or table, 
on which stands a bird, probably the dove of the Cyprian goddess. On each side 
is a seated figure, in one case in a high-backed chair and in the other on a stool, as 
there was not room for the back of the chair. Apparently the two women are in 
worship, although it is quite exceptional that the worshiper does not stand, and it 
may quite as well be that the two figures represent the goddess before her emblem 
of the dove. We have another example of a seated female figure, who seems to be a 
goddess, in fig. 1184, where the goddess, if such she be, sits behind a griffin. Her 
toes are turned up after the style of the Hittite shoes. 





Occasionally we meet the heraldic eagle, after the Hittite style. One such case 
appears in fig. 1185; on one side is an ibex and on the other one a fish, and a goose 
lifts its head in a very characteristic attitude. There is also the “tree” or “emblem 
of the Paphian goddess.”’ In fig. 1186 the eagle is above a humped ox and there is 
a worshiper with other emblems. But the bird may be more naturalistic, as in fig. 
1187. There are four birds in natural attitudes about a naturalistic tree in fig. 
1188, and there are two personages, one of which, carrying a weapon, is probably 
a god. It is possible, however, that this represents a hunting scene, such as are 
familiar on Egyptian monuments. An interesting example is that in fig. 1189, 
where the bird is somewhat in the heraldic attitude, but without legs, and with 
it are a fish, an ibex, a hand, and six (not seven) dots. 

In fig. 1190 two worshipers appear to present a dove to a third, perhaps a 
deity, who stands between them. 

We have observed cases in which a goddess is seated in a chair. In other cases 
a male figure, which appears to have an animal head, like an Egyptian god, is seated 


CYLINDERS FROM CYPRUS. 349 


or standing and holds a short spear, which might rather be compared to a spade. 
We see it in fig. 1191. There is also a second figure with a similar head. Other 
objects are a serpent, an uncertain triangular object, and an ox’s head over a curious 
object shaped like a skate’s egg. Three other cylinders (‘‘Salaminia,” plate x11, 
figs. 23, 25, 26) have almost precisely the same design. In fig. 1192 two figures are 
standing, one each side of a tree, and the spade-like weapon stands beside them. 
This design is duplicated with slight variations in “Salaminia,” plate x11, fig. 21. 
It may be the same weapon, although lacking the cross-piece on the handle, with 
which in fig. 1193 a hunter, accompanied by a dog, spears an ibex. The hand is to 
be observed. 

Mention has been made of a figure like a skate’s egg, cushion, or shield, square 
with concave sides. It is usually connected with a circle. So we find it in fig. 1194. 
There are not less than three of these objects, and over the largest one are a crescent 





and a circle. There are also a tree, an ox’s head, ti other smaller objects. The 
crescent and the circle probably represent the moon and the sun, and one might, 
in this case, suppose the “‘cushion” to represent the stand on which it rests. But 
this conclusion hardly agrees with the arrangement in fig. 1195, where the “cushion” 
is repeated and is between two circles. Perhaps we have a more developed form of 
the same object in fig. 1196, where it looks more like an altar, or stand. In figs. 
1171, 1174, the object, which appears to be the same, appears to be an altar for 
holding oil, etc. It is hardly beyond question that it is such an altar that we see in 
figs. 1197, 1198, with a worshiper on each side of it. But when we see a case like fig. 
1199, in which the two forms appear, one is left in doubt. We add a single other 
example (fig. 1200), in which the cushion is accompanied by the crescent over the 
disk, and with it are a man, an ox’s head, and a seven-branched tree, much like 


350 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


the Jewish candlestick on the Arch of Titus. In fig. 1204, almost exactly repeated 
in “Salaminia,” plate x11, 24, we see the “cushion” on each side of the standing 
figure, besides the larger one with the disk. 

A few miscellaneous cylinders may be added. In fig. 1202 are three bird- 
headed figures, two of them two-headed, lifting two animals like fawns by the hind 
leg, and with the hand on a figure like the “symbol of the Paphian goddess,” shown 
in figs. 998, 1001. In fig. 1203 we have the unusual representation of a wild boar, 
as well as of a lion, a disk with four wings, and an object like a candelabrum. It 
would be difficult to explain the four hourglass-shaped objects in fig. 1201. In 





1206 
hig. 1205 we observe two objects, one with two cross-lines and the other with three, 


which suggest the Egyptian emblem of stability. We have the same in fig. 1026. 

The general rudeness of the native Cypriote art is due, in large part, to the 
material of which the seals were made. It is the soft serpentine, which cuts too 
easily to encourage slow and careful engraving. There is a sharp contrast between 
the numerous finely engraved hematite cylinders of Syria and the equally numerous 
coarse cylinders of Cyprus. It is true that we have a series of rudely cut Syro-Hittite 
cylinders, cut with the wheel, which may be contemporaneous with these (see 
Chapter Lv). As to the age of these cylinders from Cyprus we have little informa- 
tion. It is likely that most of them belong to the later Mycenzan period and the 
period immediately following it. 


CHAPTER LAXIII. 
SABEAN INSCRIPTIONS. 


It has already been stated, in the discussion of the Syro-Hittite cylinders, that 
it is at present impossible to classify, by localities, the seals which were used in 
an extensive territory which was covered by the Syrian and Hittite culture. Indeed, 
the culture was composite and represents successive waves of population or con- 
quest or trade. Similarly, no attempt can be made to localize the cylinders con- 
sidered in this chapter. All we can do is to gather the few cylinders which carry 
a Sabean inscription and observe their peculiarities of art, if they have any, without 
attempting to say where or when they were used. We have the same difficulty as 
with cylinders carrying Phenician or Aramaic inscriptions, but which may never- 
theless be, in their art, Assyrian or Persian. ‘Their number is so small that we can 
hardly classify them, but can only figure and describe them separately, remember- 
ing that, so far as they represent a Sabean region, there may be many others not so 
recognized, which carry no inscriptions. Such a one Hommel finds in fig. 1080, 
where a hunter rides on a camel (see Hommel “ Die Siidarabischen Altertiimer,”’ 
Eduard Glaser Sammlung, p. 35). The term Sabean is used in a general sense, 
with no exclusion of Lihyanian or other allied forms. 

A single cylinder with Sabean inscriptions which has long been known 1s pre- 
sented in fig. 1207 and has also been shown in fig. 768. It is of a bluish chalcedony; 
it was obtained by Felix Jones at Anah, on the Euphrates, and was first described by 
Rawlinson. There are two lines of inscription, the two words in the second line being 
divided by two dots like a colon. The inscription ° 
has been read by many scholars, of whom the 
first were Rawlinson, Osiander, Levy, Halévy, 


and D. H. Miiller. In Hebrew letters it reads: 


xp 
IE le 
G Aré a’ Sin N \ SSD) Li 





son of Barik. 





31207 = 

Miller says (“Epigraphische Denkmaler aus Arabien”) that the characters 
are rather Lihyanian than Sabean. ‘The design shows us in the center a god, 
corresponding to the Syrian and Assyrian Adad, in a square hat ornamented with 
feathers, with a long garment, but with one bare leg advanced, with bows and 
quivers rising from his shoulders, one hand raised to receive his worshiper, and the 
other carrying a thunderbolt. At his foot is the bull of Adad. Behind him is a 
second figure, dressed in precisely the same way, but beardless. We may suppose 
her to be the corresponding goddess, as Shala accompanies the Babylonian Adad- 
Martu and Ishtar accompanies the Assyrian Adad. One hand is raised and the 
other carries what looks like a branch, but may possibly be a distaff. Facing the 
two is a worshiper dressed precisely like the two deities, except that he wears a 

351 


352 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


low round hat or turban. On the cylinder the two bearded figures show the 
strong muscles of the leg and knee, while the leg of the beardless figure is quite 
unmarked. The style of the figures is much like those of the time of Assurbanipal, 
and Rawlinson is probably right in ascribing it to about 600 B. C. We may con- 
ceive this cylinder as having been engraved in Nineveh for a foreign customer; 
or the people who used the writing may have lived much nearer to Assyria than 
Southern Arabia. As it was found in Anah, several days’ journey north of Babylon, 
one is inclined to think that the desert tribes to the west may at this early period 
have received the Sabean writing. 

Unfortunately the cylinder shown in fig. 1208 is broken, but fortunately the more 
important part is preserved. As it is, it is a most precious monument of the earliest 
Arabian writing. The inscription consists of twelve letters, besides one vertical 
stroke which seems to divide words. ‘There is also space, in a little fracture, for 
one or two other letters. The reading seems to be: ymin? | 7won--2 


% "e/a “dee T1101 


ats ct? 
Ae 









3 





The design shows us a god seizing a lion with each hand, somewhat after the 
Persian style, but drawn with much more vigor. Between the backs of the lions isa ~ 
magnificent bird, with the neck of a swan, ibis, or peacock, and with an exaggerated 
crest and with distinct wattles. One will observe the naked god, quite different 
from the Persian convention, and the headdress, if it be not intended to represent the 
hair. It hardly seems square, with feathers, like the headdress in fig. 1207. The 
bird suggests the mythical phenix, which had its home in Arabia and which, under 
the name hé/, was supposed by Jewish commentators to be mentioned in Job 29:18: 

I said I will die in my nest, 
I will multiply my days as the phenix (sand). 

Another cylinder showing a Sabean inscription is seen in fig. 1209, which 
seems to carry the inscription (not reversed on the cylinder) ¥7a7y. The design, 
however, does not appear to be South Arabian, but such as might have been found 
in the regions to the west of Assyria or in Syria. A god, in a square hat and a 
long garment and holding what may be a sheaf of thunderbolts in his hand, stands 
ona bull. Above are the star, the seven dots, and the crescent. Before him is a 
worshiper with hand raised. Before and behind them is a bird-headed winged 
figure, carrying in the lifted hand a fruit and in the depressed hand a pail or basket, 
such as we so often see before the sacred tree. In such a case as this it is evident 
that these figures are not fertilizing the flowers of the palm-tree, but more likely 
carry gifts and fortune for the worshiper at the bidding of the god. ‘The god can 
hardly be any other than some form of Adad or Ramman; and it would seem 
likely that the seal was engraved quite under Assyrian influence and from a region 
neighboring to it. 

In fig. 1210, Hommel (“Die Siidarabischen Altertiimer,”’ p. 32) has recognized 
a Sabean (Lihyanian) inscription of three letters, which he reads as Shahr, the 
Moon-god of South Arabia. The central figure is, as he correctly explains, the 


SABEAN INSCRIPTIONS. 353 


goddess with quivers from her shoulders, corresponding to the Assyrian repre- 
sentations of Ishtar, and each side of her, as if seizing her hand or in some way 
supporting her, is a winged male figure of a subsidiary deity, such as we so fre- 
quently find in the Assyrian art about a sacred tree, but which we do not expect 
to see ranged about a goddess. The relation is more like that which we see between 
winged figures and the winged disk. The other objects are the star, the crescent, 
and such a plant as is not rarely seen more developed. Hommel puts the date of 
this seal as from 1000 to 500 B.C. I should incline to the later date. Hommel 
calls attention to the feathered headdress worn by the three figures, as also to the 
same kind of a headdress worn by the rider on the camel in fig. 1080. We do not 
know that such a headdress is peculiar to Arabia. Indeed, it was common to the 
region east of Babylonia. 








1210 


Fig. 1211, a small carnelian cylinder, has three long-skirted, bearded per- 
sonages, of whom two appear to be in adoration before a third, who may repre- 
sent the deity or perhaps a king. Before him is an inscription of five Sabean letters, 
above which is a rude winged disk. The inscription perhaps reads w3778 or woop. 
Apart from its inscription, there is nothing characteristic about the seal which 
would indicate the land of its provenance. 

Very peculiar is the cylinder to be seen in fig. 1212. It shows a beardless 
figure, with two profile heads facing in the same direction, with wings rising from 
the shoulders, in a long belted and embroidered garment, which seizes with one 
hand an ibex by the beard and with the other a lion. Next is a similar figure, except 
that instead of human heads it has two antelope or goat heads. It seizes the lion 
by the tail with one hand and with the other grasps by the hand, which also holds 
a sword, the hand of a composite figure, the 
lower part of which is a lion and the upper 
part that of a beardless human figure in a high 
conical hat and with a queue falling down 
behind. Next is a third figure with the same 
garments as the other two, but having two 
birds’ heads and carrying in the arms two 
lions. ‘They are not, as might at first be sup- 
posed from the way they are carried, goats for sacrifice. Besides these figures there 
is one emblem, that which has been called the libra. There are also what appear 
to be three Sabean characters, although it is not easy to identify them. They 
would appear to represent a more complicated and earlier form of the letters. The 
design I should imagine to be Syrian and to be connected in style with such cylin- 
ders as we have seen in figs. 951-956a, where we find some double-headed figures. 

Were we here engaged in a study of the Sabean remains we might add to these 
cylinders, which are all | remember to have seen, a number of inscriptions on scara- 
boids, etc. But that belongs to other students. I would gather from the scanty 

23 





354 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


material at hand that the use of the Sabean alphabet (to employ a general term 
which represents minor varieties of writing from the Lihyanian to the early Aramaic) 
covered the entire Arabian peninsula and extended far into the desert regions to 
the north inhabited by nomads, to the south and east of Palestine, and across the 
waste region to the fringe of the lower and middle Euphrates. Perhaps only fig. 
1208, or perhaps also fig. 1212, gives us any fair suggestion as to their peculiar art 
or religion. ‘The early cylinders from the Hauran may have borrowed from their 
ideas, and I have been inclined to suspect that to Arabs was due the origin of the 
prevalent winged figures that came into use in Assyria and the Syro-Hittite region, 
but which were unfamiliar to the Babylonians of the early and middle empires, 
whose artistic conventions and mythology came much more from the East than 
from the West. 
For dubious inscriptions the student is referred to figs. 761 and 1138. 


CHAPTER LXIV. 


THE GREEK INFLUENCE. 


Very rarely we meet with a cylinder which seems to show the influence of 
Greek art. ‘These are so few that they can be considered only independently, and 
as little more than abnormal, however graceful, variations from the true Oriental 
types. The Greeks had no use for cylinders. But Greek art penetrated into the 
East before the cylinders had disappeared and may even have become a fresh and 
important influence in distant lands, where the cylinder was lingering after it had 
ceased to prevail in its original homes. There are cylinders that are said to have 
been found in Greece itself, but these are not at all Greek in feeling, and may have 
been brought by visitors, or in trade, or even by a Persian invasion of soldiers. 

One cylinder which shows Greek influence has been noted in fig. 1054. There 
the vigorous attitude and especially the flowing garments are evidence of a Greek in- 
fluence, although the language of the inscription is Aramaic. It probably belongs to 
a period of Persian control in a country where the art had become in good part Greek. 










al iy 
yy» »» »y»pyy»7) 


KRDNSY 








N Dany 
AR 
1214 1215 

We can hardly fail to see a similar Greek influence in fig. 1213. Here the 
broken seal shows us a god apparently seated on two bulls, with both hands raised, 
also two winged harpies and a worshiper. ‘This cylinder retains the gold looped 
wire which held it. Another which we may safely take to show Greek feeling is 
seen in fig. 1214. It gives us two cupids, one reclining on a lounge and one with 
trident riding on a fish. A very beautiful and exquisite agate cylinder is shown 
in fig. 1215. This cylinder is mounted in gold, and the rich mounting appears on 
the drawing, which shows the single figure on the cylinder. It is attached as the 
central pendant to a gold chain, and I was told that it was found in Afghanistan. 
A half-draped female figure, presumably a goddess, caresses the head of a heron. 

Probably we must include, as showing Greek influence, the cylinder given in 
fig. 1216, for its style is entirely unlike anything Oriental. A man-fish, with two 
Egyptian ostrich feathers on his head, lifts a standard ending in a heart-shaped 
355 





356 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


ivy leaf; and two birds, perhaps vultures, are over a lotus and two ivy leaves. 
The cylinder, which seems to be Greco-Egyptian, is of soft stone and is unfortunately 
lost. 

Certain cylinders, such as we see in Chapters LIx and Lx, and others that seem 
to belong to a Persian period, such as fig. 596, suggest a Greek influence. At any 
rate they exhibit a fresh life, which does not belong to Babylonia or Assyria, but 
which may have originated in the districts to the northwest, where the Greek 
civilization and art penetrated, or from the Ionian coasts, or from Cyprus or Crete. 





CHAPTER LXV. 
SUSIAN CYLINDERS. 


After the rest of this book was entirely written there came to my hand volumes 
vii and vit of de Morgan’s “Mémoires” of the “Délégation en Perse,” which 
give us our first real knowledge of the character of the Susian seal cylinders. M. 
de Morgan hesitates to put any definite date on the cylinders that resulted from 
his excavations; and the fact that none of them contain any writing, with the excep- 
tion of one with Egyptian hieroglyphics, makes it difficult to fix a date. They 
are usually rude and show us animals of the country in various postures and some 
equally rude human figures. They seem to have little relation to the Babylonian 
cylinders and, in fact, are usually of a different material, a fine white clay, enameled 
after the Egyptian fashion. The four or five which are purely Babylonian, with 
figures of Gilgamesh and his companions, may be dismissed as probably not of 
Susian workmanship. Some of the more characteristic are here given. 





1217 





7500 

In fig. 1217 we have two lions arranged with their tails crossing in a loop. 
This latter feature is exaggerated in fig. 1218, so as to resemble the arrangement 
of the two serpents in fig. 95. In fig. 1219 the bull is probably the bison, the 
horn being drawn at right angles to the head to show its shape. In fig. 1220 we 
seem to have both the bison and a bull like the aurochs. ‘The cross fixes this cylinder 
as of probably the Kassite period. In fig. 1221 we have bulls kneeling before a 
columnar altar under a winged disk, which again shows that the seal is not archaic. 
The playful character of the art appears in fig. 1222, where we see two animals, 
a bull (?) and a lion, each in a boat and holding an oar. 

In fig. 1223 we see the wild goat, set in a curious ornamented border. On one 
cylinder, fig. 1224, the deer is figured, which we see only rarely on cylinders from 
Babylonia. On one very large cylinder, however, we have what seems to be a deer 
357 


358 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


represented in a menagerie of animals (fig. 1225). ‘This is in two registers, the 
lower with three rams and the upper with two ibexes and a deer. Similar is fig. 
1226, where there are three registers, with three bulls in the lower one, three ibexes 
in the second, and three wild sheep, perhaps, in the upper register. 





Sometimes we have rude human figures, as in fig. 1227, 
where are two seated figures within a border of rectangles. 
We see circles in fig. 1228. 

So far as we can judge these are of no extreme antiquity. 
They are rude enough, but rather unskilled than archaic. 
The Egyptian influence seems to appear, not only in one 
with Egyptian hieroglyphics, but in the material, enameled 
terra-cotta, according to de Morgan. ‘This is certainly surprising and would seem 
to suggest a date as late as the Persian invasion of Egypt. One or two cylinders, 
collected by de Morgan in Susa and which.I have seen in the Louvre, with a 
design much like that in fig. 1095, appeared, like that, to be of a very light-green 
serpentine. 

It has been remarked that fig. 1220 can not well be earlier than the Kassite 
dynasty; but the tablet on which is the impression of a seal shown in fig. 1228a is 





227 


SUSIAN CYLINDERS. 359 


supposed by de Morgan to be as early as 3000 B. C. Ona large tablet this cylinder 
is rolled over and over twice on the reverse, while the obverse is covered with an 
inscription in what de Morgan calls the Proto-Elamite writing. The design is an 
extraordinary one and can not elsewhere be duplicated. It shows two scenes. 
In one a somewhat humanized bull seizes two lions and in the other a somewhat 
humanized lion seizes two bulls. No such scene is to be found on any Babylonian 


cylinder. 





CHAPTER LXVI. 


ALTARS AND SACRIFICES. 


In an appendix to S. I. Curtiss’s “ Primitive Semitic Religion To-day,” I have 
treated of the earliest representations of altars and sacrifices on the Babylonian 
cylinders. In the present chapter the subject will be continued into the later period. 

In the most archaic art two forms of altar are to be recognized. One of these 
is a square altar, reduced on one side near the top by a step, so that it constitutes 





1230 
two shelves. Perhaps the most archaic example we have of this is seen in fig. 1229, 
here repeated from fig. 127. On the upper shelf of the altar are what appear to 
be two cakes or flat loaves of bread, while an object which may be a vase is on the 
lower shelf. Over the altar a worshiper pours a libation from a cup. A similar 
altar we have in fig. 1230, where 
on the upper shelf there is a cup, 
or vase, and on the lower a pile of 
cakes, above which seems to be 
the form of an animal. Again, 
in fig. 1231 there is a cup on the 
<n ie | lower shelf) ingwhich) appears to 
be burning oil, toward ay and the worshiper, the goddess reaches out her hand. 
In fig. 1232 we have the altar ane no offering upon it. But we here seem to gather its 
construction, as if not of brick or stone, but of reeds fastened together, or stems of 
palm-leaves, after the fashion of seats so common at present in southern Babylonia. 












Inert Abit, 
val a Ml 





1233 1234 

The finest example of this form of altar, and the last I know of, is fig. 1233, 
the famous Rich cylinder. Here again the altar appears to be made of wicker- 
work, or possibly of brick. On the lower shelf is a vase, with the flame of burning 
oil rising from it, and on the upper shelf the head of an animal, perhaps represent- 
ing the whole animal and probably a ram. Here we have a further detail, the 

360 


ALTARS AND SACRIFICES. 361 


worshiper led by the hand to the goddess and presenting a goat as an offering. 
The goddess here appears to be one of the forms of Ishtar, and not Gula-Bau, as I 
called her in my paper previously referred to. 

In comparing these five cases of a stepped altar we gather that it was probably 
a light construction, of reeds or palm-leaf stems, and so not suitable for the burn- 
ing of a victim. ‘The offering was of 
cakes and oil, the oil burned in a vessel, 
to protect the inflammable altar. Por- 
tions of the animal offered to the god 
were placed on the altar, with the cakes 
and oil, but could not have been burnt 
there. The goat was brought as an 
offering to the deity, doubtless to be 
eaten by the priests. 

The second form of altar, which ee 
also goes back to the earliest antiquity, 1235 
is that of the hourglass; that is, a round altar more or less contracted in the middle. 
A very archaic example of this is seen in fig. 1234. The faces of the figures are 
almost bird-shaped. Out of the altar arise two objects which look like branches, 
but are more probably flames, but which yet must be compared with the altar shown 
in fig. 1235 of a bas-relief from Susa. ‘This looks even more like a plant being 


YEE ie 
Ls —— 
PASI 


ASS 
LESS Uy 


WN 


= 
st 
a 
ie 
j 
ft 





eZ 


Po “6 

MN) 

pen 
CA 





1236 1237 
watered in a pot. But for a discussion of the plant of life see the discussion of fig. 
419, and the concluding pages of Chapter XxXxVIII. 

We may consider that we have two flames, or possibly branches of the plant 
of life, from the top of the altar in fig. 1236, an altar of precisely the same shape 
and which has the ridge near the middle that we see in other cases, as in the 

bas-relief from Susa. For an excellent, if genuine, example, 
see fig. 387. We have a quite archaic cylinder shown in 
fig. 1237, where there seem to be objects on the altar. The 
interesting thing about this cylinder is that it represents the 
seated Ishtar with alternate clubs and scimitars, precisely as 
m8 in fig. 1233, and that this gives evidence that the two kinds 

of altars were used nearly or quite contemporaneously. In fig. 1238 there seems 
to be a flame, or possibly cakes, above the altar. The seated goddess is Bau-Gula. 
In fig. 1239 there are two such altars, but slenderer, and the worshiper is pouring 
oil upon them. In this case it is clear that there is no plant that is being watered. 
We have again the single slender altar in fig. 1240, where I think we see the flames 





362 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


conventionalized. ‘This is a cylinder copied from its impression on a tablet, and it 
is probable that it is a goddess and not a god, as here represented. (See discussion 
of it under fig. 421.) 

A variation of this altar gives it contracted near the top instead of in the 
middle. Such a case is shown in fig. 1241. Here I would like to believe that the 
worshiper is making a libation of oil and that the flaming oil is falling over the edge 
of the altar, but it is more probable that we have here the plant of life. This cylinder 

















































a ER Liane he eb dds Le a ee, 
= = Sages 7 
acoA, pede |e 73 : S y = ps 
He 44 a is al y v= ri 
“(ll oe SS Ly |F 4 
ai KS = A 
ARO Gy Tae ‘alee 
all eam x Yo Be 
i i AUT es ing BI : 
Tete litle 





A 


y 
= 
= 
him 
1") 






q ery 
Sule 
H i] Ht ey q 


| | ‘al ral i 
U 








1243 J244 
is of the age of Dungi, king of Ur, whose name it bears. Somewhat similar, but 
more elaborately carved, is the altar, also on a cylinder of Dungi, seen in fig. 1242. 
Yet another case of such an altar appears in fig. 1243, where there seems to be a 
cloth over the altar and possibly cakes above it, but it may be that it is poorly 
drawn. Ménant did not find it in the Museum of The 
Hague, to which Lajard credits it. 

Sometimes the altar is contracted below the middle and 
flares above. Such a case we see in fig. 1244. Here the 
worshiper is both pouring out the oil and bringing a goat as 

offering. Here we need to notice the other offerings. One 
worshiper carries a basket or pail by the handle, and it is of precisely the same 
shape as the altar. Another worshiper brings a gift held high over her head. 

On a bas-relief from Nippur (fig. 1245), imperfectly preserved and of great 
antiquity, is an altar above which seem to be flames. ‘The seat of the goddess 
apparently has the body of a bird. A worshiper with a goat is led to the deity from 





ALTARS AND SACRIFICES. 363 


behind. Unfortunately the personages before her are lost in the fracture. This 
probably belongs to the very earliest period and shows the primitive use of this 
altar. A cylinder of quite an early period is seen in fig. 1246, where the altar takes 
much the same shape and a flame arises from it. ‘The altar stands before the 
monster usually on later seals related to Marduk; but this is much older than 
Marduk appears and the animal may originally have belonged to the elder Bel 
and be a form of Tiamat. 

There are three cylinders in which the altar stands before the serpent-bodied 
god. In one case there is a very thick altar of the hourglass shape (fig. 1247); the 
worshiper stands before the god. In another 
case (fig. 1248) the altar flares at the top and 
there are uncertain objects upon it and a deity & 
sits on each side, probably the god and his 
consort. We may think of them as enjoying 
the offerings of their worshipers. Similarly 
there are the two deities before the altar in ‘7 
fig. 1249, but here the altar, from which arise i 
flames, appears as if made simply of a pile of bricks. For comparison with these 
altars see those from Sinai, of a very early period, figured in Petrie’s “ Researches 
in Sinai, “plate 142. 

A very peculiar altar, of a quite early period, is seen in the remarkable cylinder 
(fig. 1250) which shows the conquest of Nergal over Allat. The altar consists of 
a large deep bowl resting on a tripod of oxen’s feet. The goddess sits before it 
and seems to be reaching out her hand to the smoke of the oil, or incense, and 
enjoying its sweet savor. 

These are the principal cases known to me in which the altar, in any form, 
appears in the early Babylonian art. I have not included the cases in which there 











is a stand before the seated deity, or between the two deities, on which is a vase 
from which they seem to be drinking through a tube. 

The literary sources, which tell us much of the sacrifices, give us very little 
information as to the nature of the early Babylonian altars. A large stationary 
altar is described in Hilprecht’s “Old Babylonian Inscriptions,” Vol. 1, part 2, p. 
24, but it gives us no help as to these altars figured on the cylinders, which seem— 
at least most of them—to have been portable. 

There are a number of early cylinders, showing offerings presented to the gods, 
on which there are no altars. Of all, the most frequent was the goat presented by 
the worshiper. This continued down to the middle period, when the altar was no 


364. SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


longer added. Often an attendant, who seems to have been a slave, as he fre- 
quently appears scantily clad, carries a pail or basket. On some fine old cylinders 
an attendant appears with several amphorz on a tripod or a shelf, or on the 
ground. Such cases have been shown in figs. 214, 403, 404. [he shape of the 
vase with a spout, out of which oil was poured over the altars, is well shown in 
the bas-relief of fig. 1251. 

I have said that the goat (or possibly also the gazelle) is the only animal that 
appears to be regularly brought in sacrifice to the gods, yet we have observed what 
appeared to be the head of a ram on fig. 1233. There is one case, however, of a 
cylinder in the Louvre (MNB 1324) which may represent the sacrifice of a bull, but 
I have mislaid the cast of it. According to my notes it is a large cylinder of black 
serpentine, perhaps 3000 B. C., which shows a seated god with vase held to his breast, 
from which flow two slender streams, by which are eight fishes. Before him stands 


\ 


ne 


® /\ Ie 


ae ro 





a bifrons figure, behind whom was probably a figure which has been erased. A 
bull lies on its back on the ground, with legs in the air, and is held by two men, one 
of whom holds a poniard at its neck. Over the bull is the eagle of Lagash. The 
slaying of the bull in the presence of the god suggests that it is offered in sacrifice. 
One of the bas-reliefs found by de Sarzec at Tello also suggests the offering of a 
bull. There are three fragments (two of them in Heuzey’s “Cat. Ant. Chald.,”’ 
p. 105) from which we gather the elaborate scene which represents the burial in 
a mound of the dead in battle and the carrying of earth in baskets to cover them. 
Near by is a bull on its back, with its legs tied close to the body and the animal 
tied fast with ropes to two posts. By the bull we see the feet and lower edge of the 
garment of a man whom we may take to be the sacrificing priest or king, and above 
the bull, on a third fragment, a part of a large vase, or perhaps an altar with a flar- 
ing top, from which seems to fall on one side a branch with leaves. It is a great 
pity that we have not the whole of this splendid bas-relief, the fragments of which 
are so interesting. (See fig. 1252.) 


ALTARS AND SACRIFICES. 365 


ASSYRIAN ALTARS. 


We know the shape of the Assyrian altars in the time of Assurnazirpal from the 
one in the British Museum (Layard, “Monuments,” 11, plate 4) found at Nimrud 
(fig. 1253). Very similar is a later one of the time of Sargon, found at Khorsabad 
(Botta, plate 157). It differs from that of Assurnazirpal in having no hole in the 
round table at the top. A similar one, still preserving the name of Sargon, I saw 
in 1884 in a small village between Khorsabad and Mosul. These altars, of ala- 
baster, I believe, could hardly have been used for burning a sacrifice. 


fil 


SS 


! 


LA 
= 


NG 


E 





1254 1255 

Taking this as perhaps the typical shape of the altar at the time of the Assyrian 
Empire, with its round table on a heavy triangular base, we must yet remember that 
in the Hebrew worship the offering for Jehovah could be put either upon an altar 
(mizbach) or a table (shulchan). On the former a variety of offerings could be made, 
of animals, oil, flour, incense, etc.; and large or small altars were in use, as required 
by the nature of the sacrifice; while the table was reserved for cakes (shewbread) 
which were not burned or saturated with oil. So we find tables set before the gods 
in the earlier and later periods of the Mesopotamian history, and even stands for 
the support of vases supposed to be supplied with some sort of brewage from which 
the gods drink. Whether these are to be considered 
as representing offerings to the gods, or simply the 
gods in the act of feasting in their divine abode, may 
not be always clear; but there are instances where 
the table serves the place of an altar set before the 
gods. Such is the case in fig. 1254, although no offer- 
ing is upon it; but it stands between the worshiper 
and the two emblems of the deities, one of which 
represents Sin, while the other is uncertain. This 
belongs to the period of the later Babylonian Empire. 1256 
Here the table is a stand with three legs, a simple column and a broad top. Much 
more frequent is the table, of the Assyrian period—in fig. 1255 a four-legged table 
with the legs jointed and crossed, to fold up, and on it cakes and a drinking dish, 
and we may presume the fish, as its presence on the table is not unusual. In fig. 
1256 there is a swan on the altar. 

It is not always clear whether the table form is meant for human use or for the 
refreshment of the god. Thus in Place, “Ninive et l’Assyrie,”’ plate Lvir, 2, the 
king and queen sit under an arbor before a table heaped with food and are drink- 
ing from cups. But in fig. 1 of the same plate the king pours out a libation over 
slaughtered lions, evidently an act of worship, and before him is just such a table 





366 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


heaped with viands, and also an ashera. It may be that in this case the table is 
waiting for him to eat, but it appears to be an offering to the gods. 

There is a fine example of worship with a table altar in the “Gates of Bala- 
wat,” B, 1, 2 (fig. 1257). Here is a lake, that of Van, into which two soldiers on an 
expedition are throwing portions of a slaughtered animal, as if to the water-gods, 













Sn 


SO 


Ms 





37.0) 






Ex 


Sy 









SS Soe 





iaaseatts, 


OO 
SA SR DAA a BE 


ih 





and they are being devoured by the creatures of the deep. Then comes the bas- 
relief of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser II., beyond which are two standards, per- 
haps, which seem to rest on three legs and to be surmounted with a rosette. Next 
is a table altar, with a cloth over it, and next a column with a conical top, which 
resembles the ashera of Marduk. 

In Botta’s “Monuments,” plate 114 (repeated in part 
by Place, plate x1, 3) (fig. 1258), is the representation of a 
hill by ariver. At the foot of the hill is a temple with Ionic 
columns, and at the top of the hill, or “high place,” is an 
altar, in the battlemented form, so as to give horns to the 
altar. It is very different from the Assyrian altar. 

An unusual form of altar we have in fig. 1259, which 
/ TI may be Assyrian, but more probably comes from one of 
1258 the outlying regions. ‘The altar is of the shape of a round 
column with an enlarged base, with a large cup-like top to hold oil, or incense, 
here burning, and a still larger protuberance, or shelf, below the top. There is a 
seated deity, and the worshiper carries on the wrist the emblem of Belit-Ninkhar- 
shag, while behind are two-tall slender vases on a stand. Very nearly the same form 
we have in a kindred seal (fig. 1260), where the cup-shaped top is shown as well as 
the flames; and again in fig. 1261, where again there are flames from the altar. 
This last case is clearly of the Assyrian period. 


7 at ( 
Ne 
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Ne ‘| 
AS 


Le 

5 Ky KY 
oi 
QOD 
par 












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“1259 

The Persian fire-altar was of a peculiar sort, and we may presume that it was 
intended to keep the sacred fire from being extinguished. The best example of it is 
in fig. 1262. On a wide fluted stand rests a square receptacle for the fire, hollowed 
deep, with steps, and with fire at the bottom. Other more usual forms of altars 
are found in the art of the Persian period, but not necessarily indicating Persian 
worship. Such are seen in fig. 1263 and fig. 1264, but altars are not common on 


ALTARS AND SACRIFICES. 367 


Persian cylinders. A very curious case of what seems a portable altar is seen in 
fig. 1265, where two scorpion-men face an altar of the hourglass shape, reduced so 
as to be almost columnar, with a conical top from which what may be a cord 
depends and is attached to the altar lower down, as if to carry it. 






















wAKY 
ASRS} 


Y 
ie 






Ney 


ry 
CZ 


NAS 






WY 
rm 
iY 


5 


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nee ee 
= 1264 Tie 1265 i 


a 
@ 


re 
1263 


1262 





1267 


On the Syro-Hittite cylinders altars are infrequent. Examples are figs. 1266, 
1267, where the sickle-like object and the branch held in the hand of the attendant 
figures seem to have some reference to the ceremony. In fig. 1268 we have the 
shew-bread on the altar between the two deities. 

The animal brought in the arms for sacri- 
fice is regularly a goat in Assyrian as in the 
earlier Babylonian. We have, however, in fig. 
1269 a gazelle, also in fig. 1233, both on early 
Babylonian cylinders. Mention has been made 
of the rare sacrifice of a bull. Another case, 
perhaps, is a sacrifice by Shalmaneser (or to i209 
his image) in “Gates of Balawat,” D, 7. We have seen cases where cakes (shew- 
bread), birds, etc., are on the altar. 

There is no evidence in the Oriental art of human sacrifice. We see men killed 
in war, heaped in cages, torn by birds of prey, but never sacrificed to the gods. 
The literature is equally silent. The cases which have been supposed to have this 
meaning are those in which a god kills his enemy, and not where a man offers a 
human sacrifice to his god. These cases are explained in Chapter 1x. The only 
case which suggests human sacrifice is that of the arms of a brazen bull in which 
children may have been burnt. See Chapter iit. 





CHAPTER LXVII. 


THE RECOGNITION OF THE DEITIES. 


The following are among the principal data for the recognition of the gods, 
in which cases we find them fully figured and with names accompanying them. 

1. The famous stele of Sippara (Abu-habba) gives us the Sun-god Shamash 
(fig. 1270) sitting, with rod and circle in his hand and with his name written over 
him. His disk, with streams and rays, is before him. This settles the representa- 
tion of Shamash as a seated god. 

2. Hammurabi, in his stele, carried from Sippara to Susa, stands before a 
similar god. ‘The accompanying inscription identifies Shamash once more as a 
seated deity. See fig. 1271. 

3. A cylinder seal (fig. 1272) gives the names of three gods against the figures 
of them. These are Sin, Shamash, and Aa. Sin is a seated god, not easily to be 
distinguished from the seated Shamash. He holds in his hand a rod and ring. 





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1270 ane 1271 
Shamash is the standing god, with his foot raised on what conventionally represents 
the mountain of the East from which he rises. In one hand he holds a peculiar 
weapon which takes the place of the notched sword often seen on the earlier seals. 
This particular seal is of the later Syro-Hittite family and does not fully follow the 
Babylonian conventions. The third figure i$ of the goddess Aa, and the exigencies 
of the figures compelled the engraver to separate the two characters of her name. 
Aa is not here represented in her usual attitude with both hands raised, but stands 
with both hands on her breast behind the worshiper. This cylinder thus assures 
us the standing form of Shamash. 

4. Among the monuments discovered by the German expedition to Babylon 
in 1899, was a limestone stele (fig. 1273), with four figures in bas-relief and a long 
inscription of Shamash-resh-usur, Viceroy of Suhi and Maer. By three of the 
figures are epigraphs giving the names. By a female figure is the epigraph, “Im- 

368 


THE RECOGNITION OF THE DEITIES. 369 


age of Ishtar”; by that of a god is the inscription, “Image of Adad”’; by that of 
the worshiper is the inscription, “Image of Shamash-resh-usur.” The third deity 
is imperfect by the fracture of the stone and no epigraph is preserved. ‘This stele 
was probably carried by Nebuchadnezzar, or some king of his dynasty, to Babylon 
as a trophy of victory, just as the stele with the Hammurabi Code was carried from 
Sippara to Susa by a Median conqueror. The land of Suhi was on the Middle 
Euphrates, somewhere about the mouth of the river Habor. The date of this 
monument is perhaps 750 B. C. 







Ws Cie) 





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Venn 4 
; pe Ny 


i “217 

Here we have an renin record of the two deities Ishtar and Adad, as rep- 
resented not by the Babylonians or the Assyrians, but by the Suhi, in the region 
between the two, at a comparatively late period. Adad appears to be the principal 
figure. He carries his special emblem, a thunderbolt, in each hand. With the 
thunderbolt is, in at least one case and probably in both, a ring. ‘The thunderbolt 
is drawn with two prongs, and it is held by the single bar which connects the two, 
as in the case of the thunderbolt held by Marduk in the famous design of Marduk 
and the Dragon (fig. 564). The god wears the square feathered hat which we see 
in the stele of Marduk-iddin-akhi (fig. 664). Ishtar carries as her only emblem 
a bow with her star above the ring through which her hand passes to hold the 

24 


370 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


upper end of the bow. She has no quiver, such as is usually seen in the figures 
of Ishtar on the Babylonian monuments, but in those she carries no bow. A long 
curl hangs down the side of her face and her hair falls down her back. She is 
dressed precisely like Adad, in a long ornamented robe which covers her feet, and 
she wears the same feathered hat. One hand is raised in the attitude of respect 
or worship, much as Aa, wife of Shamash, raises both her hands. It is to be noticed 
that the king does not wear the feathered hat, which may be archaic, but a hat 
much like that worn by the modern Persians and the old Assyrians. He carries the 
scepter which Herodotus says all the Persians carried. Who the third deity is 
must remain doubtful, although it would seem that the staff ought to identify him. 
The three deities all stand on conventional hills, as do the gods in the reliefs at 
Boghaz-keui. Besides the four figures should be noticed the four emblems, Sin, 
the Moon-god, and probably Shamash, the Sun-god, to the right, and to the left 
the lance-head of Marduk, and the wedge, probably of Nebo. (See Koldewey, 
Mit. Deutsch. Or. Ges., Nos. 3, 5; Weissbach, “ Babylonische Miscellen,’’ frontis- 
piece and p. 9g.) 

5. Another relief (fig. 1274.) in lapis-lazuli, with the name of Marduk attached, 
was also found by the German Expedition to Babylon. (See Koldewey, 7b., No. 
5, p- 6; Weissbach, “Babylonische Miscellen,” p. 16.) Here the god, with his 
characteristic horned beast and weapon (considerably modified) and with the same 
richly embroidered garment and feathered hat that we have seen in fig. 1273, stands _ 
over a stream of water. He holds to his breast the ring and rod. 

6. Yet another small ornament (fig. 1275), found in the same deposit, bears 
the figure and name of Adad, said to be “of the temple of E-sag-gil.”” His head- 
dress and robe are the same as in the bas-relief of Marduk-resh-usur (fig. 1273) 
but he carries in each hand the simple, instead of the double, bident thunderbolt, 
and in one hand he also holds cords attached to the noses of a winged monster 
and a bull (the latter imperfectly drawn, but recognized from numerous other 
designs). The figure stands on the conventional mountain. 

7. A cylinder that was in the Blau collection, but of which I do not know the 
present possession, is published by M. M.-V. Nicolsky in the Revue Archéologique 
for 1892, under the title “La Deéesse des Cylindres” (see fig. 1276). The general 
design of the face has nothing to do with the inscription, which reads “God Martu”’ 
(Ramman) in one line and “goddess Shala”’ in the other; but between the sign for 
god and the name in each case is put the figure of the deity. ‘The god is the well- 
known early form of Ramman with the hand back on one side and holding a rod 
against his body in the other. At least I think so, although the drawing is very 
indistinct. The figure of the goddess is the familiar one of the nude goddess, front 
view, with her hands on her breast. This is a very disconcerting design, as it has 
seemed clear, from the numerous cases in which “ Ramman, Shala” appear on 
seals, that Shala was precisely like Aa, a flounced goddess with both hands lifted; 
and since Lenormant it has been usual to call the naked goddess Zirbanit. Similarly 
the very numerous cases in which the inscription “Shamash, Aa” accompanies the 
sitting or standing Shamash and the flounced goddess with hands lifted had made 
it most probable that they represent these deities. 

8. Among the emblems on a kudurru from Susa we find one statue figured of 
a goddess whose name is there written down as Gula, who is identified with Bau. 


THE RECOGNITION OF THE DEITIES. 3/1 


She is seated, and corresponds with numerous figures of a seated goddess on the 
cylinders (see fig. 1284). 

g. On a fragment of a bas-relief from Tello (fig. 1277), representing a goddess 
seated in the lap of a god, Heuzey recognizes the name of Bau. The god then is 
her husband Ningirsu. 

10. The bas-relief of Anubanini, King of the Lulubi, found by de Morgan 
(“ Expedition,” plate 61, see fig. 413), gives us the standing Ishtar, or Ninni, with 
weapons rising from her shoulders, as the goddess of war. 

We have thus found the following deities figured, with their names in the 
accompanying epigraph: Shamash, both sitting and standing; Sin, as a seated 
god like Shamash; Adad, with his thunderbolt; Ishtar, with bow and star; Mar- 
duk, with his considerably modified scimitar; Martu, in the older form of Adad, 
or Ramman; Gula-Bau; and Ea. 

These, I believe, are all the known cases in which the name of the deity accom- 
panies the figure of the god. But there are two other cases in which the name 
accompanies the symbol more or less closely and directly. The most important 
of these is the kudurru above cited. On it we find Adad (Ramman-Martu) with 
his name against his symbol, the thunderbolt trident, which definitely fixes the god 
with the thunderbolt and leading a bull by the thong as Adad. 

Ea’s name comes against his emblem of the ram’s head on a pole, with the 
mythological animal and the throne. 

With considerable probability we may presume that certain gods particularly 
worshiped by kings are represented on their monuments. Thus Sin would appear 
on monuments from Ur, and Ningirsu on those from Shirpurla. 

The fact that in a cylinder’s inscription the owner is mentioned as the wor- 
shiper of one or more gods is by no means a proof that the accompanying figures 
represent these gods. We have mentioned that many seals with the name of Sham- 
ash and Aa, or of Ramman and Shala, seem to contain figures of these deities, but 
the exceptions are as numerous as the rule. Yet in such a case as the physician’s 
seal (fig. 772), where the name of the unfamiliar god Girra is accompanied by an 
unfamiliar figure of a god, we have considerable PSE that it is Girra that 
is figured and that he was the god of physicians. 

That the flounced Aa-Shala is not a priestess is further proved by de Clercq, 
225 (fig. 476), where we have Ramman and Shala facing and the sign for god 
engraved on the body of each. In such a case as fig. 1278 the sign for god is written 
before the figure of the standing Shamash. 

In the chapter on “Symbols of Gods,” and in the several chapters devoted to 
special designs, we have the indications for the indentification of other gods, such 


as Ningirsu, Gula, Ne etc. 


v 
> 





j LLL 





CHAPTER LXVIII. 
FIGURES OF DEITIES. 


A chief difficulty in identifying the figures of deities found in the earlier art 
of the East comes from the paucity of types represented. ‘Thus there was but a 
Babylonian type of the seated god. He was always the same bearded figure, in 
the same position, whatever god he might represent. He may be Bel or Sin or Nin- 
girsu, and we know not how many other gods, this being the dignified attitude of a 
king or a god. Similarly, a common type for a standing goddess attached to her 
consort, with hands raised, may represent the wife either of Shamash or Ramman. 


EARLY BABYLONIAN PERIOD. 
The following figures of gods belong to the early Babylonian pantheon: 


. [he God in a Chariot drawn by a Dragon or standing on a Dragon: This 
god 1s 5 likely to be Enlil, the Elder Bel of tase inasmuch as it was Enlil who was . 
the hero of this myth Bere Marduk } 
took his role. He appears only in 
the earlier art, and not frequently 
then. For these figures see Chapter 
vit. It may well be Enlil who ap- 
pears in certain old cylinders bearing 
a serpent as weapon, seeing that the 
serpent scimitar, developed out of a serpent, was the characteristic weapon of 


his successor, Bel Marduk, of Babylon (see fig. 30). 





2. The Goddess with the Dragon, Belit: If the god driving the dragon is Bel, 


then the goddess with him, standing on the dragon and ete thunderbolts, is 
Belit. She appears in this ia ‘fh 
Ki 
became confused with Ishtar fa, 1 ally a 
on the lions. With Bel on 


form only on the early seals, 
and there is nothing which 

the dragon she may take the form i, with a apparently ake same goddess of 
the rain (see Chapter xxv). 





corresponds to her in the 
middle period, unless she 





3. Tiamat: the Dragon: The so-called dragon, a composite monster, eagle 
and lion, is feminine in the Babylonian epic, but it is by no means clear that such 
was the original sex. In the famous Assyrian bas-relief the dragon is masculine, 
the phallus taking the form of a serpent. It represented the principle of disorder, 


372 


FIGURES OF DEITIES. 373 


or chaos, and was conquered (according to the earlier cosmogony) by Ea or Bel, 
and later by Marduk. It seems, in the — 
early art, to be related to both Bel and 
Belit, as shown in the preceding figures. 
We see it in a more threatening attitude, 
however, on the earlier thick hematite 
cylinders, as in fig. 453. When he is thus 
trying to swallow a man he may represent 
Nergal. (See Chapter xx1x.) 














4. The Man-boat: A very archaic design shows a deity with a human or animal 
head and a long serpent-like body, bent to form a boat, in Gd p06 oes 
wnich figures of gods are seated. Whether this represents ag a4) ef 
the primordial abyss, Apsu, or some form of Tiamat we do \ 
not know. (See Chapter vt.) A 

5. The God Attacking an Enemy (probably Nergal): 
This represents a hostile and destructive Sun-god, and therefore probably Nergal. 
He appeats in very early art, contemporary with the early appearance of Shamash 
rising over the eastern mountains. But the eae ae 
representation 1s quite different. The Sun-god 
pushes, against the mountains, his enemy, who 
is therefore to be regarded as the cloud or mist 
that covers the mountains in the early morning, 
but is dispersed by the heat of the sun. (See 
Chapter 1x.) Just as in the case of Shamash, 
the design became conventionalized, so that the mountain became a mere footstool, 
and this god lost his mountains and in the middle period simply held his weapon in 
one hand, while his foot rested on the body of his foe. (See Chapter xxix.) 

6. The God Rising above a Mountain: ‘This god may certainly be recognized 
as Shamash. In the fullest form of the design fe comes out of the gates “fi the 


morning, opened to him by a porter, and rises over the eastern mountains, either 


lifting himself by his hands (0), or stepping upon them (a). He may be surrounded 


” 











a b c 


by rays, and he carries a notched sword, representing a very early wooden weapon 
armed with flint flakes. In the middle period he is quite conventionalized, and 
merely lifts his foot on a low stool (d,e), which represents the mountain of the 
earlier art, and so passes into No. 31. For fuller representations see Chapter XIII. 


7. The Water-god Ea: We have but a single example (a) from the earlier 
period of the Water-god inclosed in streams and guarded by the duplicated figure 


374 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


of Gilgamesh (fig. 648). Other forms of the Water-god, of a later period, are seen 
in b end c. With this we may compare the goddess with outstretched arms from 
which streams fall, while a vase before her pours down a flood of water, as seen in 
No. 2, b. It is possible that this does not represent the god of waters Ea, but 
Shamash arising from the eastern ocean and 
its gates. With that view the design would 
have a different geographical origin from that 
which represents him rising from the moun- 
tains. ‘The deity with a complication of spout- 
ing vases begins to appear very nearly at the ; 
time of Gudea, but is not frequently found. 2 b ¢ 

He is not to be confounded with the seated Shamash with a single spouting vase 
held in his lap, No. 8; but he is almost certainly the same as the later Assyrian 
or Babylonian Water-god seen in No. 52 and Chapter xxxvu. With him is to be 
expected the man-fish and the goat-fish. 





8. The Seated God with Rays or Streams: This is an alternative form of the 
Sun-god, which may well have originated at a different seat of worship. Thus we 
know that Sippara and Senkereh were each a seat of the worship of Shamash. 
He was regarded as the giver both of light and rain; so that both rays and streams 
with fish are associated with him, just as rays and streams are found alternating on 
his disk symbol. Usually it is this god with streams to whom the culprit bird-man 
is brought. (See No. 27.) ‘The usual seated Shamash, with the approaching wor- 






IN iy 
iii 
MR Ww 


a b c d e 

shipers, so many examples of which appear on the cylinders in the middle period, 
have neither streams nor rays and come under the next head in this chapter. 
Very frequent with this and the preceding form of the standing Shamash is the 
inscription: “Shamash, Aa,” and Aa is frequently with him alone, or following 
the worshipers. For fuller account see Chapter x1v. Eduard Meyer, in his 
“Sumerier und Semiten in Babylonien,” p. 45, says that streams (or serpents) 
from the shoulders are a sign of divinity. I think that in careful engraving the 
streams come from the vase in the lap. 


g. The Seated Bearded God: This 1s, artistically, an undifferentiated deity. 
He is usually to be recognized as Shamash, or presumed to be that god, as Shamash 
was the most popular of all the gods. In he carries the rod and ring (“tablet of 
destiny ?”’) which we know belong to Shamash. But there are occasions when 
the figure seems to represent Sin, as in fig. 30, where it is to be presumed that the 
tutelary deity of Ur is represented, and at this early period the presence of the 
moon may be intended to identify him. Equally if he is accompanied by three 
dots, for Thirty, it is probably Sin. Similarly in the art of Tello he is likely to be 


FIGURES OF DEITIES. 375 


Ningirsu; and in that of Nippur he would be Bel, and equally he might be Anu, 
or any other god. He may wear various forms of headdress and may carry in his 
hand a vase or the notched sword of Shamash. 


f ( NTT 


DOVLANT UN 
AYATELUNILY 





d e g 

10. The Agricultural God may very likely be Ningirsu, who provided fertility, 
or perhaps Tammuz in one of his protean forms. Like the corresponding goddess 
he may carry the plow and is adorned with grain. He may be either sitting or 
standing. In the latter case we see him with his foot on a mountain, which relates 
him to Shamash. Indeed there is no reason why the god of rain should not also 
at times be considered the god of 
fertility. (see Chapter X1x.) 


11. The Agricultural God- 
dess: It is by no means certain 
who this seated goddess is who 
is adorned with wheat and is re- ~ fyoa)=Sté«w OD] ne 
lated to the plow. She belongs to a very early period, if not to the most archaic. 
She is likely to be Bau-Gula, who was goddess of fertility, or perhaps Nisabu. 
(See Chapter XIx.) 


12. The Goddess with a Child: A very few cylinders, 
and all of an early period, give us this design. The 
identity of this goddess is not clear. She may be any 
protecting goddess, perhaps Bau; and there is no particu- 
lar reason to identify the child with ‘Tammuz, who does 
not have the infantile relation in Babylonian mythology, 
so far as we know, that Horus bears to Isis. It may be, quite as likely, that in this 
naive way the protection of the goddess over the owner of the seal is represented. 


(See Chapter xxIv.) 








13. The Goddess with a Winged Gate over a Bull: This goddess it is impossible 
to identify, with the scanty literary sources at our command. No design is more 
puzzling. It is not evident why the gate should have wings, nor what is the mean- 
ing of the streams from below the wings, nor what is the relation to the bull. This 


376 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


composition appears only in the early period, perhaps the earliest; and it may 
have come either from Elam or Arabia. (See Chapter xvi.) 











a b 

14. Ningishada: This is the god whose worship was favored by Gudea—a 
secondary divinity, who led his worshiper into the presence of the superior seated 
god. He is remarkable for the serpenis from 
his shoulders. For examples see figs. 368a 
and 368/; also Heuzey, Rev. d’Ass., v1, 
p. 95, and Eduard Meyer, “Sumerier und 
Semiten in Babylonien,”’ plate vit. 


15. The Serpent-god, probably Siru: 
The serpent appearing on the kudurrus is 
Siru, and probably this is also Siru, or Kadi, 
mother of Siru, although it is possible that it 
is Ea. This deity appears only in the older 
Babylonian period. (See Chapter Xviul1.) 





16. The Archaic Seated Deities: ‘These figures belong to the most archaic 
period, and the sex is not distinguished by the beard. When two are together we 
may presume that they are a god and goddess and that they indicate a prevalent 
monogamy. In such a view and in 
the extremely popular worship of 
female deities the honor paid to 
woman is very clear, but the general 
impression opposes polyandry or 
promiscuity. In the designs here 
considered the most frequent form 
is that in which two deities are drink- 
ing through a curved tube, or hollow reed, from a vase between them. ‘This type 
is found in the earliest cylinders from the Assyrian region, and there prevailed even 
to a late period, but was soon dropped in Babylonia. Very likely it had a common 
origin in the region to the East. The deities have no headdress and wear a single 














ye 
[174] [176] [17] [174] [17¢] (17f] 
17. The Seated Goddess Bau-Gula: She is simply seated and has no special 


distinguishing emblem or weapon on the older cylinders, on which she so frequently 





FIGURES OF DEITIES. aye 


appears, although she often carries a club-like scepter. On the kudurrus she has 
the dog attached to her seat (e,f). It would seem as if the long-necked bird, crane 
or goose, may have belonged to her. (See Chapter x11.) 


18. Lhe Seated Ishtar: She belongs to the earlier, or earliest, period, and is 
seldom if ever seen in the middle or later Babylonian period. Her characteristics 
are the lions, and the clubs and the sickle-shaped scimitars alternating over her 


shoulders. (See Chapter xxv.) 





[18a] [185] 

19. The Goddess of Hades, Ninkigal: She could not be distinguished from 

the seated Bau-Gula, except by the accessories of the scene. In two cylinders of 
an early period we see her seated on the throne of the lower world and at- , 
tacked by Nergal. In the late funerary art she is represented in a very differ- 
ent way, standing and suckling pigs or other animals. (See Chapter xxtit.) * 


[194] 


20. God with a Triple Club: A god, with a three-headed club raised in 
one hand and with a serpent-weapon resting on his other shoulder, is seen 
in one cylinder of the time of Dungi, King of Ur (see fig. 31). A scene 
precisely similar, except that the god is flounced and bears no weapons, is 
seen in fig. 32. In the latter case the god mentioned in the inscription is Nusku 
otherwise we might expect Sin, who 1s the special god of Ur. 








21. Gilgamesh: ‘This god, or hero, appears very often on the most archaic 
and on the early cylinders: less frequently on those of the middle and later period. 
He fights the bison or the water-buffalo, when associated with Eabani, or the lion 
often when alone. He also may fight a leopard or an oryx or ibex. He more usu- 


378 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


ally is represented in the archaic period in profile, but in the period from the time 
of Sargon he is in front view and is distinguished by the short curls each side of 
his face. In the earliest representations he is quite nude, or has simply a narrow 
girdle, the ends of which fall by his side. In the earliest period it is not the buffalo, 
but the bison of the hill country which he fights. (See Chapter x.) 


22. Gilgamesh as Standard-bearer: Yet another representation of Gilgamesh, 
or one like him, shows him as if he were the attendant of a superior god and bearing 
a sort of standard or mace. 
That in these cases it is 
Gilgamesh that is meant 
is far from certain, indeed 
hardly probable; but we 
can not otherwise identify 
this god of waters, or this 
secondary god who carries) = f2zal_— sé] [236] 
the mace. We may be certain that in whatever relation he appears he is not a full 
deity, as he is never an object of worship. As attendant on a god he is seen in 
fig. 648 and elsewhere. 





23. Gilgamesh as Water-god: He thus appears on the most important of all 
cylinders, that of Sargon I., fig. 26, where he holds a vase and gives water to a 
buffalo. In the later cylinders, even to the Syro-Hittite period, he frequently holds 
a vase from which streams gush out. (See Chapter x1.) 


24. Eabani: Closely connected with Gilgamesh in Babylonian art is his asso- 
ciate Eabani. He is the monster with the body of a bull and the head and arms 





a c é b 
of a man, but with the horns of the bison. He, like Gilgamesh, or a figure like 
him, is an attendant on the gods and also carries a mace or standard, as in figs. 
269 and 481. (See Chapter x.) 


25. The Human-headed Bull: 
He is often fought by Gilgamesh. 
He differs from Eabani in that he 
has the fore legs of a bull, and not 
humanarms. While we have indi- 
cations that Eabani was created bz 
by Ishtar to attack Gilgamesh we f2s2] [2<5] [26] fag] 
have no information about the human-headed bull. (See Chapter x.) 





26. Etana: Like Gilgamesh this is the figure of a legendary hero rather than 


of an actual god. He is carried to the heaven by an eagle. The scenes in which 


FIGURES OF DEITIES. 379 


he appears are very complex and seem to represent scenes in the life of Etana in 
regard to which we have no literary remains. (See Chapter xxu1.) 


27- The Culprit Bird-Man: This may represent the Zu-bird as brought 
before the Sun-god for punishment as seen in No. 8. He has evidently been guilty 
of some offense, for which he is brought for judgment. (See Chapter xv.) 


28. The Porter: This auxiliary deity is usually attached to the older figures 
of Shamash rising over the mountains. The porter opens for him the gates of the 
morning. (See Chapter x11.) 

29. The Bijrons: While the two- 
headed figure appears occasionally, and 
generally on the older cylinders, to lead 
the bird-man or the worshiper into the 
presence of the god, he is seen also in 
the Hittite period. He must be regarded 
as merely a conventional device to show [505 
that he is paying respect to the god before oa while also inten: to the person- 
age brought to the god. (See Chapters xv and XLV1.) 

The deities thus far considered belong chiefly to the early Babylonian period, 
although some of them pass down into the Middle Empire. Those that follow, 
down to No. 40, belong properly to the Middle Empire, although they may be 
continued in the later periods and the neighboring regions. 


30. Ihe Standing Ishtar: The attributes of the standing Ishtar are much the 
same as of the seated goddess, the lions and the scimitar. But from each shoulder 
should appear the ends of the arrows in her two quivers, and she carries often in her 
hand the Babylonian caduceus, which may quite lose the serpent shape and look 
like a candelabrum. The lion is often degraded into a squat animal which might 
as well be a dragon. (See Chapter xxv.) 

31. Shamash uath Lifted Foot on a Stool: This 1s the 
degraded conventional form of Shamash stepping on a moun- 
tain, shown under No. 6. There are intermediate forms, but in 
the period of the Middle Empire, and later, this was a very com- 
mon element on the cheaper hematite cylinders, showmg how 
pervasive was the worship of this deity. He usually carries z : 
his notched sword, even after its meaning, coming down from a stone age, was 
forgotten; but later he may carry a modification of the Egyptian emblem of stability. 


32- The God usth the Samitar: Marduk: 
Inasmuch as Marduk emerged late as a princi- 
pal deity he is not to be expected to appear in 
art much before the tme of Hammurabi. He /}¥e 
is probably a western god and derived from the ; =: 











same Hittite original as the next. Heisrecog- | EoA 
nized by his peculiar weapon, the scimitar, €#%. 
which was onginally a serpent. Marduk slay- a ; 

ing the dragon with the scimitar appears in Greek story as — killing the 
Gorgon with the same weapon. Sometimes his foot is on his later characteristic 
ome (c). (See Chapter xxvtz.) 





380 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


33. The God with a Wand: Ramman-Martu: This god belongs to the middle 
period, and then as a western or foreign god, but he appears first somewhat before 
Gudea’s time, although an imported Syro-Hittite deity. His identity is confused 
with that considered in No. 36, which was also a Syro-Hittite god brought into 
the Babylonian pantheon. This god was 
not the original Syro-Hittite Adad, who 1s 
the god with the bull and thunderbolt; but 
he and Marduk probably came from the 
superior Syro-Hittite god (No. 68). He is 
very frequently accompanied by his consort 
Shala. (See Chapter xxx1.) 


34. The Standing Goddess with Lifted 
Hands, Aa or Shala: ‘This represents an 
undifferentiated goddess who may be the 
wife either of Shamash or Ramman-Martu. She always, unless possibly in the 
earlier art, appears in a flounced garment and wearing her hair in a very long 
slender lock down her back. She carries no distinguishing mark except it be the 
high headdress of the elder gods. Her relation to Ramman makes her a frequent 
figure, but she seldom appears alone. (See Chapter xxXt.) 


35. The Naked Goddess with Hands under her Breasts: Zirbanit: ‘This god- — 
dess, as the wife of Marduk, is the 
successor of Belit, the wife of Bel, 
whom Marduk supplanted. She re- 
sembles this naked goddess, as seen 
in Section 1, but is probably derived a 
from the nude Syro-Hittite goddess. 
She is usually absolutely nude and 
holds her breasts with her hands. In f 
the true Babylonian art in which she \ 
appears, she is a late comer, like Mar- 
duk. In the still later period, under ¥ i ; 
foreign influence, she may appear in profile, as in e, and on later cylinders the 
umbilicus often is shown. (See Chapter XxvV1.) 





[34] 











30. The God with Thunderbolt and Bull: Adad: This god also appears first 
in the middle period, and is more 
properly identified with the Syr- 
ian Adad than is the god consid- 
ered in section 33 of this chapter 
(a, 6, c),. [he bull is led@by <2 
thong attached to a ring in its 
nose, the same hand holding a 
thunderbolt, which may be the 
continuation of the thong. The E z 
other hand carries a weapon. The zigzag weapon represents the lightning, while 
the bull represents the bellowing of the thunder. (See Chapter xxx.) 





FIGURES OF DEITIES. 381 


37. God with Foot on Victim: The god carries in one hand a weapon over 
his head and in the other a sheaf of radiating clubs or arrows, while one foot rests 
on a prostrate victim. ‘This may be the later conventional form of the god figured 
in No. 5, in which case 
it would probably be 
Nergal; or it may be 
a variant of the last, 
as Adad. (See Chap- 


Rar BOW IN 


38. Goddess with 
Crook: This goddess, | = ae 
designated assuch by =— 7a [375] [38a] [385] 
her square hat and her spreading necklace, or pectoral (not a beard), appears 
occasionally in the later period of the Middle Kingdom. She doubtless came from 
the Hittite region, but can not be identified (see fig. 456). 





39. God with Crutch: ‘The crutch is very likely a crescent on a pole, and the 
god comes, like the last, from the north, 
and may be a form of Sin. In some 
cases the sun 1s in the crescent. 


40. The Two Figures Wrestling: 
What mythologic personages are meant 
is not clear. It is easier to suggest 
Gemini than to prove it. 

The Assyrian deities differ some- : are ¢ 
what in appearance, but represent gen- [394] eae [40] 
erally the same as the Babylonian; but some forms, mostly subordinate, require 
separate treatment. For Ashur in the winged disk see No. 1 in the next chapter. 


41. The God Fighting a Dragon, etc.: Marduk-Gilgamesh: The design which 
represents the conflict between order and disorder is new in the Assyrian art. It 
appears to be drawn from the story of Marduk and Tiamat, but confounded with 
that which represents Gilgamesh fighting wild beasts. The god is winged, which 





Og 


CEP 





is a bold addition to the true Babylonian thought of the gods, and this feature has 
passed into all later representations of heavenly beings. The god may be standing 
or on his knees, and may fight a dragon, a sphinx, an ostrich, or a wild beast. 
(See Chapter xxXVI.) 


382 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


42. The Eagle-headed Archer: ‘This is a form of winged Sagittarius, repre- 
senting probably an inferior deity. 


43. Ihe Scorpion-man: ‘This is yet another Sagittarius, and of comparatively 
late origin. 


44. The Centaur: ‘This is also late, and it is very probable that the Greek 
Centaur came from this Eastern source. He carries a bow or other weapon. (See 


figs. 21, 631-633.) 





[42] [434] [430] [444] [440] 
45. The Dragon and its Substitutes: The original form of the dragon in As- 
syrian art is seen in a of section 41, and is precisely what we have seen in fig. 564, 
copied from the very early Babylonian type; and so it appears in quite a number 





of Assyrian cylinders, of an early, but not the earliest period, in conflict with the 
hero who is a composite of Marduk and Gilgamesh. But the dragon takes on, in 
the course of time, many other shapes, as the serpent rarely, the sphinx, the winged 
bull, the wingless bull, the ostrich, etc. 


40. The Standing God with Bow, or Club: It is on the older 
Assyrian cylinders, of serpentine, that we find this god, usually hold- 
ing a rude bow, sometimes a club and with a worshiper standing 
before him, or a stand with a vase and an attendant with a fan. This 
is doubtless a primitive Assyrian deity, hardly one of the Babylonian 
pantheon, although very likely identified with some one of them, but 
which one is uncertain. He is to be compared with the principal Hittite god 
(No. 68). With these cylinders we see often the peculiar wide angular borders. 


(See figs. 723, 727-731.) 
47. The Goddess on a Stool Drinking: This goddess is also frequently seen 


on oldest Assyrian serpentine cylinders. It is especially characteristic to see her 





FIGURES OF DEITIES. 383 


apparently drinking through a bent tube from a vase on a stand before her. She 
much resembles the very archaic Babylonian deities shown in No. 16. In the plainly 
Syro-Hittite cylinders she appears as shown 
in Chapter xL1x. For examples see figs. 


Tae Vivi Vet 


| aR; 

48. Adad Seatedina Chair: A charac- (a) 
teristic of the northern art is the use of the he 
high-backed chair in place of the square ai 
stool. The latter is made of the ribs of [474] laze] [476] 
palm leaves, a material not stiff enough for the back of a chair. Wood would be 
used for seats in the north, especially in the hilly regions, and from this chair- 
backs could be made. While the seated god in such a chair belongs to the Assyrian 
period and empire, he probably is not 
indigenous to Assyria itself, or at least to 
the Semitic Assyrian people, but comes 
from the northern regions. Frequently, 
in these cylinders this god, or a goddess, 
is attended by a servant holding a fan. 
The back of the chair may be adorned 
with stars or rude circles which take the 
place of stars. Occasionally we have the 
stool in place of the chair. It is far from [484] [485] 
certain whom this god represents, although infrequently he carries the thunderbolt, 
in which case he is a form of Adad. (See Chapter xxxIx.) 








49. Goddess Seated in a Chair: She may be resting her foot on a dog, as if 
she were Gula or some kindred goddess; or she may be the Asianic goddess Ma, 
or possibly Belit. She is of northern origin and is to be related to the seated Hittite 
deity, or to the more archaic form shown in No. 47. (See Chapter xxxIx.) 





[50] [50c] 


[49a] [496] 


50. The God with Stars: Adad: ‘The god usually adorned with stars ought, 
from the stars, to be Adar (Ninib) or Jupiter. But the evidence seems to connect 
him with the more popular and warlike Adad. He does not usually stand in a 
circle, as does Ishtar, but the stars may be at the end of his bows or on the top of 
his hat. His animal is a bull or some composite animal in which the horns or tail 


of the bull enter. (See Chapter xt.) 


384 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


51. The Goddess with Stars: Ishtar: The Babylonian Ishtar on the lion or 
lions, with weapons rising over her shoulders from her quivers, does not appear 
in the Assyrian art, except rarely, and then much modified. Such an example we 
have in b, where the quivers are retained and as many other weapons added as she 
can carry. But the peculiar addition is the stars. In fig. a we have the more 
usual Assyrian form, in which she is surrounded by a circle of stars. The lion is 





a b c d 
also modified so as to be a composite creature, partly lion but more like the 
dragon; but this may be omitted and the circle of stars may be modified so that 
the stars disappear. Indeed, the form may become very rude, but can hardly be 
mistaken, especially when, as is usually the case, she is accompanied by her male . 
companion. (See Chapter Xz.) 


52. The God with the Goat-fish: In the Babylonian art we have had occa- 
sion to identify this god with Ea, and the same god must be recognized in the 
Assyrian art. He is either seated or standing. (See Chapter xxxIx.) 





UOC 


[53¢] 





[52a] 

53. The Assyrian Water-god: ‘This form is closely related to the Babylonian 

No. 7, from which it is derived; and yet it sometimes, as in c, suggests Shamash, 

who was also a water-god, rather than Ea. But it was a more popular device than 

in Babylonia, and appears on the later cone seals, often in quite a decorative form. 
(See Chapter XXXVII.) 


54. God with Lion’s Head and Eagle’s Feet, probably Nergal: ‘This deity, 
who may, perhaps, often represent a destructive spirit rather than the lion-god, 
seems to appear in b of No. 3 in the form of a dragon opening his mouth to bite 
the man’s head. It does not frequently appear in the cylinders. 


55. The Eagle-headed God appears frequently on the bas-reliefs of Assur- 


nazirpal and also on the cylinders with the tree of life. We can regard him simply 


FIGURES OF DEITIES. 385 


as one of the genii, or protecting spirits, and not as a principal god. He carries 
the pail or basket to gather the fruit of life and fortune. 





[54] 3 [554] 
56. The Winged Attendant of the Tree of Life: Ue often carries a basket and 


takes a cone from the tree. A simpler and more usual form of No. 55. 


[56] 


57. Ihe God in a Fish-skin: This deity must also be regarded not as a 
principal god, but rather as one of the protecting genii. He occasionally appears 
on the cylinders of the Assyrian period, > 
as also on the bas-reliefs, as an attendant 
of the tree of life. He does not seem to 


be any special fish-god. 


58. The Man-fish: Among the em- 
blems of the gods in the next chapter, , i Py, 
section 35, the man-fish is coupled with [57] [58] 
the goat-fish at the period of Gudea. But in Assyrian art the man-fish is differently 
treated and seems of more importance, as a guardian of the tree of life and the 
source of gushing streams, or even as seized by Bel. (See Chapters xxxvi, XxXXVIII.) 





59. The Human-headed Bull: ‘The bull is treated in various ways in the 
Assyrian art. In No. 45/, we have the winged bull representing the evil spirit 
overcome by Bel. But often it is the human-headed winged bull, as in No. 45¢. 
The wingless human-headed bull frequently appears in a different honorable rdle, 
as supporting the winged disk of Ashur. 











ATTA 


Y (LUNI 


UTS 
CN 
7 CA 





[60a] [bor] [600] 

60. The Gorgon: This grotesque figure is of late appearance and may be 
the origin of the Greek Gorgon or, perhaps, giants who fought the gods. See figs. 
643-646. Also for the bearded representation in c, see fig. 9392. 


25 


386 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


It has been mentioned that certain forms of Assyrian gods were not derived 
from Babylonia, but were probably of indigenous origin and adopted by the 
Babylonian conquerors. Others came from the neighboring people to the north 
and west. We may be more certain of this in regard to several deities which are 
characteristically Hittite or Syro-Hittite. Others have their origin plainly in Egypt. 
Of the Egyptian gods we note the following on Syro-Hittite seals. But it is likely 
that they are rather Palestinian than either Syrian or Hittite. They come mostly 
from Sidon or from the east of the Jordan and probably represent a period of 
Egyptian rule and influence, perhaps even earlier than the eighteenth dynasty. 
For these from No. 61 to No. 67, see Chapter xtiv. 


61. Sekhmet. 

62. Seth. 

O38 Riana es 

64. Apts. Pe 


65. Horus, who appears under vari- [62] 
ous forms. 655 may be Ré. 

66. A Winged Goddess. TH 

67. A Winged God. [| 

Others are more definitely Syrian 
or Hittite. [65a] [656] [65c] [66] [67] 

68. The Vested God, probably Tarkhu, Sandu, or Khaldis: This god is prob- 
ably the original from whom the Babylonians borrowed their Adad-Ramman- 
Martu, No. 33, and prob- 
ably by an earlier invasion 
their Marduk, No. 32. He 
is represented as standing 
with great dignity, carry- 
ing no wealth of weapons, 
like Adad-Teshub, and 
indeed very rarely any wea- 
pon. His usual form is 
that of c. He is probably 
the principal god of the Hittite pantheon, who in the west was ann or Sandu, 
and Khaldis among the Vannai. 
(See Chapter XLVII.) xq 


69. The Vested God’s Consort: 
We have no means of knowing the 
name of this goddess. Indeed it is 
doubtful if she was anything more 
than the pale reflection of the god. K \ 
She is known by the square hat [65] [yea] ao [joc] 
characteristic of Hittite goddesses. Sometimes for her is substituted the usual 
Babylonian form of the undifferentiated flounced goddess (No. 34), who may 
indifferently be Aa or Shala. (See Chapter x.vit.) 











FIGURES OF DEITIES. 387 


70. The Hittite Teshub-Adad: In this northern deity of the storm we have 
the origin of the Babylonian and the Assyrian Adad, Nos. 36 and 50. He is known 
by his short garment, scarce reaching to the knees, with horizontal bars across it, 
his round spiked helmet, and his two hands grasping weapons, rather the ax or 
the club and the bow than the thunderbolt. He may stand on mountains and lead 
his bull. His name Teshub, under various forms, was common in the regions north 
of Assyria. He corresponds to the Hebrew Yahwe. (See Chapter XLvIitt.) 


71. The Naked Goddess, Ishkara: The usual and most characteristic form 
of this goddess is that in which she seems to be holding before her a skipping-rope 
or a garland, as in 6. But really she is withdrawing her garments each side to 





f i 
disclose her nudity. Occasionally, as in d, she appears under an arch, and at other 
times, in the larger seals, her garment is clearly seen, and not the mere lower line, 
and it is drawn to one side to show 


her body, asin g. (See Chapter L.) 
72. The Hittite Seated Goddess: 


We have in a an extremely archaic 
deity with a queue. This cylinder 
(see fig. goo) was found in a mound 
in Cappadocia. We are by no 
means certain that these figures 
represent the same goddess. That ae d _ 

in c seems to carry an Egyptian lotus. The goddess drinking from a vase through 
a tube seems to extend over the primitive populations from the Persian Gulf to 
the Black Sea. (See Chapter xL1x and 
Nos. 16, 47 of this chapter.) 


73. The Goddess in a Chariot: Per- 
haps this goddess is more Syrian than 
Hittite. The four-wheeled chariot of 
state is characteristic, as well as the four 
horses. This hardly seems to bea chariot 
of war, but rather of display for worship in processions. It is not easy to identify 
her with any great probability. Whether the deity drawn by lions is the same we 
do not know. (See Chapter LUI.) 








388 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


74. Winged Figures: It has already been mentioned that the figure of Mar- 
duk-Gilgamesh (No. 41) is winged in the Assyrian art, doubtless following the 





¢ d e 
northern convention. But there is in the Syro-Hittite mythology a Barts of 
winged genii which we are not able to distinguish or identify. (See Chapter LI.) 
75. Fantastic Figures with Twisted Legs: See figs. 954, 956a. ‘These appear 
to be late Syrian. 
76. Two-Headed Figures: These also appear to be late Syrian. (See figs. 
954 955» 1212.) 





[75] [76] [774] [770] 

77. Perstan God Fighting Animals: We can hardly take the frequent Per- 
sian god fighting animals, usually one or two lions, as any other than borrowed 
from the Marduk-Gilgamesh of Chapter xxxvi. But there is a change of dress and 
the lions have a peculiarly solid, stout body. The god also wears the crown, which 
seems to have come into use first with the Persians. Sometimes the god lifts a lion 
with each hand by the hind leg and stands on two sphinxes. The animal the 
god fights may be a winged bull, or sphinx, or an ibex. It may not be amiss to take 
him for Mithra. (See Chapter Lx.) 


78. The God in a Crescent: As we have Ashur developed in human form out 
of the solar disk, so in the Persian period we have the figure of the Moon-god 
within the circle thickened at the bottom to simulate a crescent. ‘This can be only 
Sin, perhaps under some Persian name. (See Chapter Lx.) 





CHAPTER LXIX. 


EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 


On the earlier Babylonian cylinders the gods are usually represented by the 
full human figure; but as art became more conventionalized emblems of gods 
were substituted for the gods themselves, until in the later mythologic art we 
sometimes find, especially on the kudurrus or “boundary stones,” occasionally on 
the later cylinders and generally on the Assyrian cone seals, only the symbols 
representing the divinities. It becomes necessary, from all sources of evidence, to 
disentangle these emblems, and, as far as possible, to assign them to their several 
divinities. In the case of a few this is easy enough; with others it 1s difficult, if not 
impossible. The three that come oftenest together, the sun of Shamash, the crescent 
of Sin, and the star of Ishtar, are easily recognized. Others require more study. 





Tei 

The first careful study* of the various emblems of gods found in connection 
with the bas-reliefs of the Assyrian kings was made by von Luschan, in a chapter 
on “The Monolith of Asarhaddon,”’ contained in Heft XI (“Ausgrabungen in 
Sendschirli,” pp. 11, jf.) of the “Mittheilungen aus den orientalischen Sammlun- 
gen” of the Imperial Museum of Berlin, 1893. This monolith, found at Senjirli, 
contains twelve figures or emblems of gods (fig. 1279) just in front of the head of 
the king, one of the most elaborate of the designs of this sort known. Other 
examples generally have a smaller number of emblems. Four of these emblems 
are such columns as are found on the cone seals. With this bas-relief von Luschan 
compares other steles of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Sargon, etc., also the bas-relief 
of Maltaia, all of which have similar figures. Of the identification of some of these 
emblems there can be no doubt. Thus the crescent is certainly the Moon-god Sin, 
and the star is Ishtar; and there can be no question but that the deity who holds 
the thunderbolts is Adad. We should also naturally conclude that the winged disk 





389 


390 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


turn to the accompanying inscription and we find that the king begins with an 
invocation to ten gods whom he specifies, and then groups the rest “zl: rabuti 
halisunu,” “the great gods, all of them.” The ten gods mentioned are (in order) 
(1) Ashur, (2) Anu, (3) Bel, (4) Ea, (5) Sin, (6) Shamash, (7) Adad, (8) Mar- 
duk, (9) Ishtar, (10) the Seven, the last being the seven Igigi. Besides these 
deities here specified, Nabu is afterwards named in connection with Marduk. 
Inasmuch as among the specified deities are the seven Igigi, it is easy to recognize 
the seven dots as representing these deities, which gives us five out of the twelve 
figures which we can recognize, but none of the columns. 

The inscription gives us hardly any further help, as the order of the figures 
and that of the names is evidently not the same, and especially as there are more 
deities figured than are specifically named in the inscription; and, further, only 


one goddess, Ishtar, is mentioned, while two appear to be figured, one the star of 
Ishtar and the other a seated goddess. 









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Next, von Luschan calls attention to a stele of Assurnazirpal (fig. 1280), on 
which are figured five emblems of gods, and on which five gods are invoked. We 
might naturally presume the five figured to be the same as the five invoked. They 
are the crescent, Sin; the star, Ishtar; the thunderbolt, Adad; and also the familiar 
circle with four rays alternating with four streams, which we know to be Shamash. 
‘That leaves the horned hat, which would seem to be Ashur, who is named and who 
had seemed previously to be represented by the winged circle. 

On a stele of Esarhaddon (fig. 1281) are figured six emblems of gods and six 
are mentioned in the accompanying inscription. But the names of the gods and 
their figures do not correspond, and we do not need to dwell on them. It would 
seem that the artist put in the small emblems as he happened to choose, while the 
scribe selected the names of the two triads of gods, except that Ashur takes the place 
of Anu. Only two of his list appear to be figured. 


a 





EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 391 


Yet another stele of Esarhaddon, on the Nahr el-Kelb, shows eight emblems. 
Unfortunately the inscription is imperfectly preserved. 

Another case to which von Luschan calls attention is much more important. 
It is the rock-relief of Sennacherib near Bavian (fig. 1282). On it are twelve 
emblems of gods, and the inscription mentions twelve. It has been observed that 
in previous cases there was no care taken to secure correspondence between the 
emblems figured and the names or order of the gods mentioned, so that the list 
of gods invoked gave little help in identifying the emblems. Those in one category 
might not appear in the other. The artist of the emblems was not in consultation 
with the scribe. But in this case there is a correspondence, not observed by von 


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There are twelve emblems and twelve gods named; and the important fact is that 
the order in a number of cases is evidently the same. ‘Thus the crescent, Sin, is 
fifth in both; Adad’s thunderbolt is seventh; the star of Ishtar is eleventh; and 
the seven dots, or stars, are twelfth. These coincidences pass quite beyond any 
law of probable accident and must have been intentional. The one apparent 
violation of coincidence is in the case of the god Shamash, who comes sixth in the 
list of gods. But the sixth emblem is the winged disk, which was supposed to repre- 
sent usually Ashur. It would here seem to represent Shamash; and, indeed, if 
it represented Ashur it ought to hold the first place of honor and not the sixth, next 
after the moon, just as in fig. 1279 it came between Sin and Ishtar. We then con- 
clude that the winged disk must have originally represented the sun and was so 


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392 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


meant on the stele at Senjirli (fig. 1279), and that later it was confined to the rep- 
resentation of Ashur. Indeed, for all we know, Ashur, who was a new Assyrian 
god unknown to the Babylonians, may have been originally a Sun-god, and so at 
first identified or confused with Shamash. At any rate, the winged disk here 
appears to be the emblem of Shamash and not of Ashur. Ashur ought to have the 
first place in the designs, as he has in the inscriptions, and in that case he must 
be represented here by the first of the horned hats, or turbans. 

We have, then, good reason to recognize the coincidence in the order of all 
those emblems that we know with the gods enumerated; and it follows that all the 
twelve emblems can be identified. The order is as follows: 


T. Horned turban, 2 oe es. one ee Ashury? #78; Uhunderboltth ayer et eee ore Adad 
254 Homedatutban, J... dese ayamieitede Anu 8. Column with pineapple top......... . Marduk 
3... Horned starban is wounre-ncremnan aaa Bel 9g. Simple (double?) column ............ Nabu 
4., Column proithitram’ sshead “aay eeeree a Ea 10, Column with two bulls’ (lions’?) heads. Ninib(?) 
Grabescent tsetse CP CRO ey Meee a 6 oral Sins 11, otal aw Nap settee Mee ema a cots Ishtar 
6. Winged disk one er eee. ee Shamash 12. Seven dots 2. 7 ast ee eeree nnt ere Igigi 


In this list the order has been followed both of the emblems and the gods 
specified. The name of the god No. Io is illegible, but is Ninib or Nergal. But 
the bas-relief is not always plain, and I presume, from comparison with other 
monuments, the emblem for No. 10 should be drawn with two lions’ heads instead 
of bulls’ heads. Also, the emblem No. 9 should doubtless be made double, like 
the two narrow columns seen in fig. 1279, 
instead of a single wider column. 

We have thus gained knowledge of 
twelve emblems of gods (three of them 
identical horned hats or turbans), of which 
five are columns or asheras; and these col- 
umns are so differentiated as to represent 
the five gods, Ea, Ramman, Marduk, Nabu, 
and Ninib or Nergal. 

The bas-relief of Maltaya (fig. 1283) 1s 
of value not only for the figures of gods, but 
also for the emblematic animals related to 
them—the dragon, with uplifted tail, of Mar- 
duk and Nebo, the lion of Belit and Ishtar, 
the winged bull of Adad and probably Sin, 
and the horse of some uncertain god. 

Now comes another very important 
step in the identification or corroboration 
of these emblems. We have considered 
the bas-reliefs of Assyrian kings, with their 
accompanying emblems. But these emblems were evidently borrowed, with varia- 
tions, from the accepted Babylonian emblems of the gods, as found scattered 
on the seal cylinders, but gathered in numbers on the so-called boundary stones 
or kudurrus. While Hommel and others have given some attention to them, and 
the accompanying inscriptions have been translated by Oppert and his successors, 
the figures themselves had not received the study they deserve, as they are very 





EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 393 


difficult to understand. But a study of a number of kudurrus by M. J. de Morgan 
first gives us new light. In a volume of his “Mémoires,” the “ Recherches arché- 
ologiques,” 1900, with the account of the diggings at Susa in 1897-99, is given, 
pp. 165-180, a chapter on twelve kudurrus found by de Morgan at Susa, where 
they had been gathered as trophies by Elamite kings in their raids in Babylonia. 
Some of these are fragmentary, but others are among the finest that have yet been 
discovered. One (fig. 1284) is of especial value, because it actually gives us, in a 


ra EOE 
BEER ECR TING 








little epigraph against each emblem, the name of the god, which finally settles the 
matter. Unfortunately, not all of the names are legible. De Morgan, writing at 
Susa, and without access to other material, and apparently having no knowledge 
of von Luschan’s studies or Jensen’s identifications, writes quite independently. 

These various emblems fully corroborate the conclusions drawn from a study 
of the bas-relief of Bavian. ‘There is, of course, no winged disk, which is a Syrian 
and Assyrian device, probably borrowed from Egypt, perhaps before the invasions 
of the eighteenth dynasty, and modified by the omission of the asps and the addi- 
tion of the tail. Shamash is represented by his familiar Babylonian emblem, the 
circle with four included rays of light alternating with four streams of water. Ishtar 


394 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


is, of course, the star. The seated goddess is Gula, identified with Bau. We had 
concluded that among the columnar gods the ram’s head on the column represented 
Ka, although it seems strange that he should be crowded out of the triad of gods rep- 
resented by the horned turbans in order to make room for Ashur, who precedes Anu. 
But this subordinate position is here justified, as well as the representation of Ea by 
a ram’s head, as Ea is represented in the same way, by a ram’s head on a column. 
But the column stands on a square seat or throne, under which is the fish-tailed 
capricorn of Ea, and the name is distinctly written. The name of Marduk, another 
god whom we might have expected to be represented with more dignity, is also 
distinctly inscribed on his column, which gives us a sort of lance-head, evidently 
corresponding with the emblem identified as that of Marduk on the Bavian bas- 
relief. The original idea is possibly that of a triangular-pointed flame on the top 
of a column, but more likely a lance-head, which is sometimes developed to a sort 
of pineapple, as in fig. 1282, and sometimes reduced to a large round dot, as in fig. 
1298. The column with one lion head is certified by its epigraph as Nergal, which 
leaves the column with two heads of lions (cf. fig. 1282) for Ninib (so Hinke). 
This kudurru gives the names of five deities, Nergal, Gula, Zamama, Shuqumuna, 
and Nusku, whom we do not find on the relief of Bavian. 

With this very satisfactory basis for our study of the emblems of the gods we 
may proceed to consider these, and others, separately, but first presenting several 
other important kudurrus for comparison of emblems. (Figs. 1285-1292; figs. 1285 
and 12854 represent two sides of the same monument.) 

1. The Disk of Shamash: This emblem occurs more frequently than any 
other, which shows that although Shamash did not belong to the first triad of 
gods, but to the second, yet he had, as might be expected for the Sun-god, the 
first place in the worship of the people. ‘The identification of this emblem with 
Shamash is proved, if any proof were necessary, by the stele of Abu- AG 
habba, which we have seen in our study of the Sun-god (fig. 310). The noe 
four angular rays, arranged in the form of a cross, alternate with four <i 
streams. here can be little doubt that they represent the light-rays of the sun, 
while the streams indicate that the Sun-god was regarded as also the giver of 
the rain. Indeed we have seen in our study of the Sun-god that he is often 
represented seated, with streams as well as rays about his body. 


2. The Kassite Cross: This is a simple modification of No. 1, as shown in 
Chapter xxxulI, on Kassite seals (see fig. §42). ‘The circle is omitted and the cross 
(or rays) has been reduced to two cross-lines, which are set in a frame, the frame being 
sometimes omitted. ‘This included cross also appears in Crete. (See “Annual,” 
British School in Athens, 1902-03, p. 93.) Out of this cross per- 
haps, as seen in fig. 1293, was derived the swastika, which had such als 
a vogue in many countries both to the east and west, but which we 
do not find in Babylonian or Assyrian art, although de Morgan 
found it on pottery in Elam with the more usual cross (“ Délégation ogo HP 
en Perse,” vill, p. 110). With this may be connected the fact that 
the Assyrian sign formed of two wedges crossed has the meaning of “Sun-Ninib, a 
as mentioned by Jensen (“‘Kosmologie,”’ p. 116). That the swastika represented 
the sun is shown by Birdwood (Bonavia, “Migration of Symbols,” p. xi), who 


EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 395 


cites a coin of Mesembria on which the inscription is MEX“f. Yet another late 
form of the cross (b) appears on necklaces worn by the kings, as in Layard’s 
“Monuments,” plate 519, 82. 


3. The Crescent: ‘The crescent is evi- 
dently the emblem of the Moon-god, Sin. 
It appears in art earlier than the emblem of 
the sun, corresponding to the superior dig- 
nity, and perhaps earlier worship, of the 
moon in primitive Chaldea. On the kudur- 
rus and cylinders it constantly accompanies 
the emblems of the sun and Venus, form- 
ing with them the heavenly triad. In the 
earlier art the crescent was long and shal- 
low (a), but in the time of the Second - 
Empire it became even more than a half circle (). Somewhat fare the crescent 
is seen on the top of a column, as a sort of ashera, and, after the Assyrian style, 
with streamers from below it, as in fig. 1294 from a small lapis-lazuli cylinder. 
In fig. 1295 the Moon-god stands on a crescent, and we have also the ashera 
of Marduk. In this connection we may mention the triple circles occasionally 


appearing during the Middle Empire, which represent Sin as the god Thirty. 
4. The Sun in the Crescent: In the period of the Middle Empire of Baby- 


lonia it became usual to combine the sun of Shamash and the moon of Sin in a 
single emblem, owing to the contracted space on the smaller a of this 


period. In the still later and depraved 
art, the careless engravers often neg- 
lected to fill out properly the details in Ray 


the representation of the included sun. 

The symbol d, worn on a necklace by a inom: is elaee a pamineton of ih cres- 
cent with the cross, instead of with the circle, of Shamash. We have it on a cylinder, 
fig. 751, taking the place of the sun in the crescent. 


5. The Star of Ishtar: As the disk represented the sun 
and the crescent the moon, so the star, which so generally 
accompanied them, must have represented the goddess of the a b 
planet Venus, or Ishtar, and yet on certain earlier cylinders it may represent the 
sun. Such particularly may be the case in 4, which belongs to the earlier period. 


6. The Winged Disk: a, b, d, e, g, and 1 are Assyrian, while c and f are 
Persian. ‘The winged disk appears to have originated in Egypt, as the symbol of 
Ra, under his various forms as Amon or Horus. It appears there as early as the 
fifth dynasty (Sayce, “Religions,” pp. 76, 89). It probably does not appear in 
Assyrian art until after the invasion of the eighteenth dynasty, but may be earlier 
in Syria and Phenicia. In the very early art of Babylonia we have the winged gate 
(Chapter xvii) but not the winged circle. A study of the Egyptian history of this 
winged circle does not belong to the present investigation. The Count Goblet 
d’Alviella, in “The Migration of Symbols” (p. 214, English edition), who traces 
it back to the sixth dynasty, finds its elements in the circle of the sun, the urzeus 


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396 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


serpents, the wings of the sparrow-hawk, and the horns of the goat. The Egyptian 
winged disk is seenin h. Here, on each side of the disk, are the two wings of the 
sparrow-hawk; depending from the disk on each side are the two urzi; and reach- 
ing out above the wings on each side are the horns of the goat, all of which 
are symbols of the sun. 


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With the native Egyptians who came as rulers into Syria and Phenicia was 
doubtless brought the pure Egyptian winged disk; but as it entered into the art 
of the country, and passed eastward into Assyria and Persia, it was greatly modi- 
fied. It kept the disk as the predominant and essential emblem of the sun, but it 
lost the urzeus serpents and the goat’s horns. The wings were retained and to 
them was added. a tail, which was absent in the Egyptian symbol. There was 
also added, at times, a long streamer on each side, like a cord or ribband, which 
might end in a tassel or handle, and which was meant to be grasped by the wor- 
shiper, as if to give him tactual connection with the supreme deity. Abundant 
illustrations of the winged disk as it appears on the cylinders have been shown on 
the Assyrian, Syro-Hittite, Persian, and other cylinders. ‘The variations of form 
are countless. 

It is a question which is open to doubt whether the winged disk, as it is here 
seen, is wholly derived from the Egyptian solar disk, or whether it may not also 
have derived part of its origin from the Egyptian hawk, or more often vulture, 
which is often seen in a protecting attitude over the king on Egyptian and Pheni- 
cian art with wings extended or one depressed. ‘The fact that it is more ornitho- 
morphic than the Egyptian disk, in that it has the tail, makes this possible. Indeed, 
at times it has the wings depressed in Phenician art, as shown in the remarkable 
cup of Przeneste seen in fig. 1296. Here we have a series of pictures, an epic of a 
hunt and a combat. In the first scene the hunter, in his chariot with his charioteer, 
drives out from his castle; in the next scene he discovers, shoots, and kills a deer, 
and hangs up and flays its carcass. He then sits down to eat his venison and offer 
a sacrifice to his god, whose symbol of protection in the shape of the winged disk 
is over his head. But from the entrance of a cave in a near hill is seen the head of 
a watching troglodyte who, as the hunter leaves in his chariot for the next scene, 
follows him with a stone. But the god is his protector, as is symbolized by the 
chariot and its riders drawn up to heaven and encircled under the wings of the 


EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 397 


deity, as is so often expressed in Hebrew hymn and story. Thus protected the 
hunter discovers his enemy and turns back and kills him and returns safely to his 
castle. ‘The depressed protecting wings are much in the style of the bird so often 
seen in Egyptian art. It seems almost indifferent in Egyptian art whether it should 
be this bird (vulture or hawk) or the solar disk with its ural, but with the wings 
omitted, that should protect the king. It would perhaps be safer to say that the 
two emblems, the disk with asp, and the vulture-goddess, were combined in the 
winged solar disk of the Assyrians. 

That the disk represented the sun would hardly need argument. Its shape 
proves it almost certainly, and it is recognized as solar by Egyptian scholars. 
Among the Assyrians the disk with wings certainly designates the supreme deity 
Ashur; but we have at least several cases (figs. 1279, 1280, 1281) in which it stands 
in the place of the Sun-god, with the crescent of Sin and the star of Ishtar. See also 
















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the stele of Bel-Harran-Beluzur, in Maspero’s “ Passing of the Nations,” p. 208; 
Scheil, “ Recueil de Travaux,” vol. xvi, p. 106. Doubtless Ashur himself was iden- 
tified with the Sun-god Shamash as the supreme deity. When in later Assyrian and 
Persian periods a single human figure took the place of the disk between the wings, 
it was then Ashur, and when two additional human figures were represented as 
rising one from each wing, we may suppose that the chief trinity of gods, Anu, Bel, 
and Ea, was intended, but that Anu was identified with Ashur, and equally with 
the Sun-god. Inz, from a seal probably of one of the outlying districts of Assyria, 
the wings are omitted, but the sun is distinctly represented. But in all cases it was 
still the sun that was in mind, as supreme emblem of the chief deity, a thought which 
was familiar enough in Hebrew worship, as where we are told in Malachi 4:2, that 
“the sun of righteousness shall arise, with healing in his wings.” Indeed the 
Hebrew Scriptures are full of references to Jehovah as protecting his followers who 
rest under his wings, in all which cases it is not the figure of a hen protecting her 


398 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


brood, but the majestic figure of the great sun-disk with outstretched wings resting 
over the worshiper. Chantre (“Mission en Cappadoce,” p. 44) is in error in sup- 
posing the Assyrian god Ashur to represent the Moon-god Sin. 

In the earlier Syro-Hittite and Assyrian period the wings were short, as in d, 
and the entire figure was very simple, merely the circle with the wings and tail. 
Then followed, as an Assyrian development, the cords connecting the worshiper with 
his deity; much as in the very early Babylonian designs we see in Chapter xv1i the 
kneeling worshiper grasping what looks like a stream from under the wings of a 
gate. In this Assyrian period we begin to see the deity represented in human form— 
as a warrior with a bow, even; and, finally the divine triad—as in b. We find the 
triad also in Persian art, frequent as an architectural ornament, as well as on cylin- 
ders, etc., and the wings are often made very long and narrow, as in c. The fact 
of the prevalence of the triad in Persian times may indicate that there by no means 
prevailed a pure dualism, with one supreme god of good, Ahura-mazda, but that 
the polytheism of Babylonia still continued to survive. The proper place for the 
winged disk, whether of Ashur or Ahura-mazda, was over the king or owner of 
the seal; or it might be placed over the tree of life, where it represented the same 
idea of protection, since the tree itself was the emblem of life and all the bounties 
of fortune, supplying these in the form of fruit to the owner of the seal. Morgen- 
stern says (“Doctrine of Sin in the Babylonian Religion,” p. 23) that “Ashur and 
Ashuritu were always the god and goddess of the king of Assyria, but of no one 
else.” The frequent appearance of the winged disk on private seals does not agree 
with this statement. 


7. The Divine Seat and the Horned Turban: Two or even three of these 
figures frequently occur together on the kudurrus, at the beginning of the succession 
of emblems, or following the three gods of the sky, Sin, Shamash, and 
Ishtar. ‘The lower portion is not an edicule, a shrine, or an ark, but a 
seat, the resting-place of the god. It is so designated in the text accom- 
panying one of the kudurrus, where we read: “All the great gods whose 
names are mentioned on this stone, whose weapons are figured, whose 
seats are represented” (Scheil, in de Morgan, “Délégation en Perse,” 1, p. 89). 
When Marduk conquered Tiamat, the gods gave him “a scepter, a throne, and 
a ring (?)” (King’s “Seven Tablets of Creation,” 1, p. 61). 

One may perhaps consider the seat as representing the god’s residence in 
the sky, and the animal under the seat sometimes seems to be his emblem as a 
constellation. Above the seat is the sign of the god, his high horned hat, or turban, 
with its folds arranged like horns. ‘The fact that there are two or three of these 
shows that the god was not in familiar representation, so that two or more gods 
could be figured in the same way, much as we have seen that, in the Middle Empire, 
the goddess Aa, wife of Shamash, and Shala, wife of Adad, were figured in the same 
dress and attitude, or as, in the yet earlier art, the seated Shamash can not be always 
differentiated, except by some emblem attached, from the seated Sin. ‘The seats rep- 
resent Anu, Bel, and sometimes Ashur, and at other times perhaps Ea, although this 
is not his usual emblem. Anu of the Heavens was never a familiar god even among 
the Babylonians; and the same was true of Bel, after the emergence of Marduk, who 
assumed his functions and displaced him. They were quite too far off from the relig- 





EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 399 


ious life of the people even to be held in clear remembrance, and their attitude or 
form was lost. Accordingly both had the same emblem, which was repeated to 
designate them. Sin is called “Lord of the royal miter”’ (Zeitsch. fiir Ass., v1, p. 159). 


8. The Ram and Goat-fish of Ea: ‘That this represents Ea is proved conclu- 
sively by its order in fig. 1282 and the name of Ea assigned to it in fig. 1284. ‘To be 
sure, in fig. 1282 we have simply the ram’s head on a column, as in ¢, while in the 


ws 


Panyyyy 






22,°o 


im 
ees 









b a 1297 


fuller form of a we have the ram’s head also on a column, but resting on the god’s 
throne. The fuller form, for which there is room on the kudurrus, can not be ex- 
pected on the cylinders; and there we may find solely the goat-fish (fig. 1297), which 
must be taken as the emblem of Ea wherever it occurs. In fig. 756 Ea is recognized 
by his goat-fish, above which he stands in a circle, emerging from the divine seat. 
On the cone seals the column with the ram’s head will be expected on account of its 
vertical compactness allowing it to be placed beside other asheras, or columns; but 
as Ea was not a god so much worshiped as Marduk or Nebo we may not expect it 
to be frequent. Examples of the goat-fish will be seen on the cylinders (figs. 649, 
654, 658) and elsewhere its shape allows it to be placed over or under other objects. 


g. The Thunderbolt of Ramman-Adad: On the kudurru, fig. 1286, we have 





the emblem of Adad in its developed form, as in a, and in b (fig. 1287) we have a 
more wavy thunderbolt over the calf, or hornless bull, the divine throne being 
omitted. But more frequently only the thunderbolt is shown, sometimes with two 
and sometimes with three prongs, and generally | 

zig-zag rather than wavy. It is not the imperfec- 4 ‘ ; 

tion of the stone, as might be thought, that [ees Gait a, ® } Ie 4 
accounts for the absence of the horns of the bull, 2 Lm Feet itaeg 
for the same absence appears in at least three kudurrus. Where the god is repre- 
sented in full on the cylinders, leading the bull by a cord, as shown in Chapter 
xxx, the bull has horns. Wherever the thunderbolt appears above or on a bull, 
it must be regarded as the reduced emblem of the god Adad, who holds a thunder- 
bolt in his hand and leads a bull by a thong attached to a ring in its nose, as in fig. 
455. The thunderbolt does not often appear on the cone seals, but we see it in 
fig. 1298. The earliest form known is that of 7 (see fig. 127), which was the origin 
of g in fig. 564. But in the earliest form it belonged to Enlil. 


10. The Spear, Scimitar, and Dragon of Marduk: he spear is certified to 
Marduk both by the Bavian rock-relief of Sennacherib and the named kudurru 


400 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


No. 1 of de Morgan (fig. 1284) and also, in a less certain degree, by the stele “ Bel 
Harran bel Usur,” at Constantinople (see de Morgan, “Délégation en Perse,” 
Mémoires, 1, p. 168, note), on which are given the names of five gods, one of 
them Marduk, with their emblems in the same order as in the 
relief of Bavian. Final proof is in the magnificent figure of Mar- 
duk (Weissbach, “ Babylonische Miscellen,” p. 16, 
fig. 1). (See fig. 1274.) In its developed form (fig. 
1300) it is a composite monster, with the head of a 
serpent (as shown by Heuzey, “Revue d’Assyrio- 
logie,”’ v1, pp. 95-104), the front legs of a lion, and the 
hind legs of an eagle; with two long upright slender 
horns and a lifted tail; it is crouched under the 
divine throne above which rises the end of a spear. 1298 1300 

The throne may be omitted, or even the composite beast, leaving only a column, or 
ashera, with the spear-head. The composite animal is characteristic and perhaps 
is sometimes found alone to represent Marduk on the cylinders. But this same 
animal also goes with the emblem of Nebo, as we shall see in the next number. 
It is to be considered whether this was not an alternative form of the dragon 
Tiamat (see fig. 562). But that dragon belonged to the elder Bel Enlil, and had 
the head of a lion and not of a serpent. The name of Marduk’s dragon is Sir-russu 
(zb., p. 100). But he appears in fig. 650 on a cylinder of the Gudea period, and 
so before the emergency of Marduk asa chief god. It is remarkable that this spear- 
head should be the emblem of Marduk, seeing it never appears as a weapon carried 
by Marduk, or, indeed, by any god that is figured, his usual weapon being the 
scimitar, or sickle-shaped weapon, as in figures shown in Chapter xxvii. But the 
scimitar occasionally appears on the cone seals, as in c. In fig. 1299 we have 








: ; : LB. Wars eer Cs Ne 
the usual spear, where we also see the symbol of Belit-Ninkharshag. It is also in 
figs. 1301, 1302, 1303, 1304. But we learn from I. 101 of the fourth “ Tablet of 
the Creation ” series, that it was with the spear mulmullu, which also became the star 
Mulmul, that Marduk conquered Tiamat, after forcing the evil wind into her belly. 


The terrible winds filled her belly, 
And her courage was taken from her, and her mouth she opened wide. 
He seized the spear and burst her belly. 
He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart. 
He overcame her and cut off her life, 
He cast down her body and stood upon it. 
—King’s << Seven Tablets of Creation,’’ p. 71, G4 p. 209, note. 


Either Marduk or Nebo stands indifferently on this dragon (fig. 1200). 


EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 401 


11. The Column, Ziggurat, or Wedge of Nebo: The usual representation of 
Nebo on the cone seals, where it appears a multitude of times with that of Marduk’s 
spear-head, is that of a double column (4, c), and is so certified on the relief of Bavian. 
In its fuller form it has, however, a wedge on the divine seat (a), over an animal 
precisely like that of Marduk (No. toa). On the stone of Nebuchadnezzar I. (fig. 
1287), however, the animal appears to be a goat. The close relation between Mar- 
duk and Nebo in Babylonian worship and the fact that their two columnar emblems 
are usually associated are the sufficiently satisfactory reasons for assuming that 
the wedge emblem also represents Nebo, inasmuch as on the kudurrus it usually 
accompanies that of Marduk. ‘The conclusion is 
further supported by the bas-relief (fig. 1273) figured 
by Weissbach, “Babylonische Miscellen,” on which 
Shamash-resh-usur, King of Sukhi and Maer, near _ 
the mouth of the Habor, worships the figure of “& 

Adad, behind whom is Ishtar, each of the two deities > ; iE 
being designated by an inscription. Corresponding to Ishtar is a broken figure of a 
deity, probably Shala. Above, the spear-head symbol of Marduk is accompanied 
closely by the wedge, doubtless of Nebo. Here the wedge takes the place of the 
double column which usually accompanies the spear-head. 

In fig. 1302 two superposed wedges accompany the spear-head of Marduk, 
both on their common animal. Before them stands a worshiper and Adad with 
his ax stands on his bull. The accessories are the sun in crescent, the star, the 
crescent, the fish, the seven dots, and the rhomb. 












1305 138054 1805b 

On the stone of Merodach Baladan I. (fig. 1288), as usual, Nebo follows Mar- 
duk; but here his dragon is inclosed in a Ziggurat, intended perhaps to suggest that of 
Birs Nimrud. On the cone seals he appears very frequently with Marduk, as in figs. 
1298, 1301, 1303. The wedge is a very appropriate emblem for the god of letters, 
but what is the origin of the double column it is not easy to say. From the representa- 
tion in c (de Morgan, fig. 388, p. 179) it would seem to consist of two or more rods 
bound together. For a possible explanation, however, see No. 50, the crook, of this 
chapter. The column is occasionally single and solid, as in fig. 1304. For an ex- 

26 


402 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


ample of the column of Nebo on a cylinder of the later Babylonian empire, see fig. 
1305. Ona kudurru shown in “Mitt. d. Or. Gesells.,”” No. 4, 1900, Nebo is repre- 
sented by d, with his usual dragon. It looks like one of the celts found in Asia Minor. 


12. The Seated Goddess Gula: We are familiar with Bau, or Gula, as she 
appears on the cylinders (Chapter xvi). It is remarkable that she is represented 
so frequently in the full figure of a seated goddess, as in the previous chapter, 
No. 17, instead of by symbol. Under her is placed, in figs. 1285-1287, a dog, as 
it seems to be by comparing the plates. We may then gather that the dog was 
her emblem, and when we find the dog alone in figs. 1289, 1290, following close 
after the symbols for Marduk and Nebo (they have to be spread to plot them in a 
circle), just as they do in fig. 1286, or as in fig. 1291, we may presume that the 
dog here and elsewhere on the kudurrus represents Gula-Bau. It occasionally 
appears on cylinders of the Kassite or later period, as in figs. 521, 524, 525. It is 
possible that the great honor given to the dog in the Zoroastrian religion may be 
related to the symbol of the dog for the goddess Gula. It is the dog who protects 
from the death-spirit (see “Sacred Books of the East,’ Zend-Avesta, p. LXXIV). 


13. Nusku, the Lamp: Of the significance of the lamp there can be no doubt, 
as it is certified by the inscription in the kudurru figured by de Morgan (fig. 1284). 
This is a very appropriate emblem, as Nusku was the god of fire, in 
which attribute he was identified with Gibil, and later with Nebo. But fe _f 
Gibil may be considered, more exactly, the lamp-emblem of Nusku, as UD 
appears from the text accompanying the kudurru, fig. 1285, where, in Z 
the list of gods whose curses are invoked, we find “Mighty Gibil, the instru- 
ment of Nusku” (Scheil, de Morgan, “Délégation en Perse,” 11, p. go). On 
one kudurru Nusku appears as a censer (?) (Hinke, ‘‘ A New Boundary Stone,” 
p. 120) instead of a lamp. 


14. The Two Lion Heads of Ninth: This emblem is left in a degree of doubt 
by the relief of Bavian (fig. 1282), on which a column with two heads, which 
Layard (“Babylon and Nineveh,” p. 211) calls heads of bulls, but which are more 
probably heads of lions, occupies the tenth place. The name of the god in the 
tenth place is Ninib as shown by Hinke (*‘A New Boundary Stone,” cf. Nebu- 
chadnezzar I., p. 87), who reads the epigraph of Nergal not understood by 
de Morgan. We find the same representation of 
Ninib, with two lions’ heads on a column, on the 
bas-relief of Senjirli, as seen in fig. 1279. The 
lions’ heads are not always fully drawn. In fig. 
1286 the heads are reduced to mere bulbs, with 
what appears, as in fig. 1284, to be an inverted vase < 
between them. The two heads thus arranged with the vase suggest the Babylonian 
caduceus, with its two serpents’ heads and a vase between them; but these seem 
to be distinctly lions’ and not serpents’ heads, as appears on the Senjirli stele. 
But this figure adds another important feature. Here the emblem of the column 
with two lions’ heads (not distinctly drawn) rests on a lion-headed winged sphinx. 
We have previously found Ea borne by his goat-fish, Marduk and Nebo by a fan- 
tastic animal with high horns, Adad by his bull, and Bau-Gula by her dog; and 


we may now accept the lion-sphinx as the animal belonging to Ninib and may 


SY 





EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 403 


recognize him in the winged sphinx on the lower register of de Morgan’s kudurru 
No. tv, and the stone of Merodach Baladan I. (fig. 1288). We see on the kudurru, 
fig. 1286, that a second deity is attached to the same sphinx, just as we have seen 
Marduk and Nebo borne by the same fantastic animal. This suggests that the 
second sphinx may represent Nergal, who was so closely associated with Ninib, as 
Nebo with Marduk; but see paragraph 15 below. The lion properly belongs to 
Nergal, who is, in the texts, represented as a lion. On the kudurru figured in 
Mitt. d. Or. Gesellschaft, 1900, No. 4, p. 17, the figure of an archer has the winged 
lion attached, and we may presume this to be Nergal. 

Before passing from this emblem it is well to recall the two lions’ heads sur- 
mounted by the eagle of Lagash (No. 28) carried as a standard of war by the king 
on the so-called Stele of Vultures, of the very early times of Eannadu (Heuzey, 
Catal. des Antiq. Chald., p. 107; de Sarzec, ‘‘Découvertes en Chaldée,” plate 4 
bis), where the standard 1s probably held in the hand of the god Ningirshu. But 
Ninib was identified with Ningirshu, and the double lion head has thus a very 
early origin. See No. 28. Hommel in his discussion of the kudurrus (“Aufs. 
Abh.,”’ 11, pp. 236-268) sees Gemini in the two lions’ heads. 


15. Zamama: A column with an eagle’s or hawk’s head. This identification is 
verified by fig. 1284. To be sure it is not well drawn by de Morgan, and the head 
looks more like that of an ass, but it is certainly that of a hawk or eagle. ‘This 
appears from its association with a similar column with a lion’s head here, as in so 
many other cases in which the hawk’s head can not be mistaken. So we have it in 
figs. 1286, 1287, and 1292. In fig. 1286 the full hawk is drawn 
with head turned back in front of the column, and belonging 
to it, just as an animal accompanies emblems of gods on di- 
vine seats or thrones. Here it must be understood that the col- 
umn and the bird before it represent a single deity, Zamama. 
This hawk, with head turned back, is not to be confounded & d,' 
with the hawk, if hawk it be, which we find perched on a 15% 
column with two prongs at the top, as that occurs on the same kudurrus with this 
hawk emblem of Zamama. The choice of the eagle as the emblem of this god allies 
it with the frequent old design of the eagle seizing two animals with its talons. The 
relation of Zamama with Ninib (No. 14) gives some difficulty. (See No. 28.) 





16. The Lion-headed Column: This emblem usually accompanies that of 
Zamama, the eagle-headed column; but what deity is indi- 
cated by it is not clear. The column of Ninib, with two 
lion heads, is usually found with them. ‘This close relation 
indicates a related god, and, as stated under No. 14, Hinke 
finds the name of Nergal attached to it on fig. 1284. This 
very important identification solves two principal difficulties 
about the emblems, for it follows that the two lion heads of No. 14 represent Ninib. 















a 


SQV eS 


WSS 


anaay 
irene Os 





tts 
TOC 


TTY 
AY 
A CEU TOR 


17. The Club, Shugamuna: ‘This emblem is identified by its name on fig. 
1284. Shuqamuna is a Kassite deity, similar to Nergal, according to de Morgan (or 
Scheil), p. 169. It does not appear on other kudurrus in just this form and seems to 
be replaced by other or more developed emblems. Thus in fig. 1286 we have what 
may be the same emblem, but like a truncated spear-head resting on a throne, over 


404 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


aram. We may suspect that in de Morgan’s kudurru No. 4 the broad spear-head 
with a very broad shaft, to the right of the upper register, as drawn (really on an 
angle of the stone), represents this club, and not Marduk, as 
Marduk and Nebo, represented by their fantastic animals, 
are together on the lower register. On de Morgan’s kudurru 
No. 5 there is a column near the bottom, perhaps an altar 
not found elsewhere, which may be considered in this 
connection. In figs. 1289, 1290, we have a definite club. 
Shugamuna was the head of the Kassite pantheon, and takes the fein ake of 
Marduk, who was the principal god under Hammurabi. It is then somewhat sur- 
prising that his emblem is usually the mere club, although once it seems to appear 
with the divine throne and a ram. Even so it has not the position of honor of 
Ashur in the Assyrian art. He was, in the religious schools, identified with Nergal 
of Cutha, but the deities were really distinct. 


18. The Coiffure and Knife of Ninkharshag (Nin-Karrak, Nin-makh), Lady 
of the Mountains, Ninnit: ‘This emblem is found as a full female head with 
the hair, and in two other forms, one representing the coiffure or wig of the god- 
dess, and the other the same object upside down. As a symbol it was probably 
derived from the hair of the Egyptian Hathor (e) and reached Babylonia probably 
by way of the Hittites, perhaps after the conquest of Syria by the Egyptians in the 
eighteenth dynasty. It was one of the characters in the Hittite syllabary. 

The indication that this sign represents Ninkharshag, or Belit, is found in 
the text accompanying the kudurrus, for example, of Melisihu (fig. 1286), where, 
in the maledictions against any one who should violate the grave, we read (Scheil 
in “ Délégation en Perse,” 11, p. 108): ‘“‘May Anu, Bel, Ea, and Nin-khar-sagga, 
the great gods whose will is irresistible, observe him with angry countenance! 
May they curse him with destructive, implacable maledictions!’’ Here four deities 
are mentioned as of the first rank, the first to pronounce their curse. The first 
deities to be represented on the upper register after sun, moon, and star, always 
on the top of the stone, are Anu, Bel, and Ea, followed by this emblem we are 
considering, and which we may therefore, with much probability, presume to be 
Ninkharshag. We have here the divine throne, on it a knife shaped like one of 
the characters in the Hittite syllabary, and over it this coiffure of the goddess, in 
this case reversed. The meaning of the knife is not at all clear, except as it is a 
weapon for offense and punishment. 






geet 


aw 


B 








The representation of the goddess Hathor by her hair was most appropriate, 
as that was her distinguishing feature, and it was precisely in the form of this em- 
blem, as shown in e. Such an Egyptian goddess would be naturally assimilated 
with Belit-Ninkharshag. It would not be strange if the constellation Coma 
Berenices (also said to be the hair of Ariadne) were originally the emblem of Belit; 
or perhaps she is represented in Lyra, which is quite as much in the shape of this 


EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 405 


emblem; indeed this emblem has been taken for a lyre. Whether the emblem of 
this goddess appears in the later Greek letter omega is to be considered. The 
Egyptians seem to have identified their Hathor with an Asianic goddess whom they 
called by the Syrian name of Kedesh, if we may judge from her figure (fig. 775) 
which wears precisely the same coiffure. ‘That she corresponds with the later form 
of Zirbanit appears from such cases as fig. 211. 

Examples of this emblem on cylinders are not numerous, although it occasion- 
ally occurs. It will be seen in fig. 722, where the worshiper before a burning altar 
wears the emblem of his god on his wrist. It is seldom omitted on the kudurrus. 

But that this represents the coiffure about the face of the goddess appears 
in a few seals of a rather late period after the ingress of Egyptian influence. 
Examples are seen in figs. 432, 452, 843. In fig. 462 we have the face drawn within 
the coiffure of tresses, over the “thirty” of Sin, which is over a figure of Zirbanit. 
We have also Adad on his bull, Shamash, if Shamash it be, with his foot on a human- 
headed bull, the goddess Aa, a worshiper with a goat, and as many other minor 
objects as can be crowded in; a vase (without its “libra’’), the sun in its crescent, 
an ape over a dancing figure, and a tortoise. Another 
such case we have in fig. 1305c, a cylinder of the Syro- 
Hittite type, in which the face within the tresses is dis- 
tinctly drawn, the remaining design including two 
sphinxes under the winged disk, a star, a hare, and an / \ 
ibex head, and also an elaborate braided rope pattern. SRE IT ae 

The Knife has already been mentioned as associated with the coiffure of Belit- 
Ninkharshag, and when it appears alone it may be regarded as also her emblem. 





19. Siru, the Serpent: ‘This identification 
needs no argument. The serpent is usually a 
most conspicuous object on the kudurrus, and 
occasionally its name appears in the accompany- 
ing text, as in fig. 1284, where it is the sixteenth 
in the list. It is, however, more often omitted in 
the accompanying lists, as if hardly a recognized a 
deity. It must have been, however, more than 
local, as it is omitted from few of the kudurrus. 
It was of enough importance, at any rate, to reach the rank of a constellation. 





ERR 


q 






20. Iskhara, the Scorpion: ‘The evidence that the scorpion 1s Iskhara is drawn 
from an astrological omen tablet. In Thompson, “Reports of the Magicians” (11, 
p. 76), we read: “Anu (D. P. mul) Akrabt (D. P. ilu) Iskhara 
ina la’ab urrisha,”’ etc., “when in the flaming light of Scorpio Iskhara,”’ 
etc. Here Scorpio and Iskhara are identified. See also Jensen (“ Kos- 
mologie,” pp. 72, 73) for “(Mul) Girtab-Iskhara tamtim,” where Gir- 
tab, Sumerian for Akrabu, scorpion, is equated with Iskhara, a goddess 
resembling Venus. ‘The scorpion is frequently depicted on the stones 
and Iskhara is frequently mentioned. She is a goddess of the Kassite 
pantheon of whom very little is known. She is related to Ishtar and is called “God- 
dess of the Holy Mound,” that is, of the sea (Sayce, “Religions of Ancient Egypt 
and Babylonia,” p. 374). 





406 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


There now remain the following emblems on the kudurrus thus far uniden- 
tified: The tortoise; the bustard (or sparrow) on a plow; the eagle on a forked 
column (hawk); the sheaf (?), shell (?), sponge (?), scale (?); the eagle-headed col- 
umn; the arrow; the scorpion-man hunter; the horse under an arch (appears once). 

We find the following deities mentioned, which we have not assigned to any 
one of the emblems: Anunit, Shumaliya, Papsukal, Shulpaudda, Aruru, Sidlam- 
taudda. 

Of these Shumaliya, as the subordinate consort of Shuqamuna, is probably 
not figured separately. We meet Anunit but once, and she is to be identified with 
Nana and Ninni, which are other forms of the great goddess Belit-Ninkharshag. 
Aruru is another goddess who is mentioned but once on the kudurrus, who aided 
Marduk in the creation of mankind; but we can not further identify her with her 
emblem. Papsukal is spoken of as a messenger of the gods. He can not here be 
the same as Nebo, messenger and associate of Marduk, for their names are on the 
same stone. He may be Nusku. Sidlamtaudda is another form of the god Nergal, 
and so may be eliminated from the list. As to Shulpaudda (or Umunpaudda) we 
simply know that he represents a god of brilliancy, and so solar, not to be dis- 
tinguished in qualities from other solar gods, such as Shamash and Ninib. There is 
no special evidence which connects any one god with the half-dozen symbols or 
emblems which remain undetermined. Most of them, and the important ones, 
we know, but the tortoise, the sparrow, the lion-headed column, and the eagle 
perched on a two-forked column (the notch of an arrow) appear frequently enough, 
so that it is unfortunate we do not know their significance. Others, as the sheaf 
(?), the horse’s head, and the scorpion-man shooting the arrow, occur too seldom 
to give us much indication of their identity. 


21. The Scorpton-man or Sagittarius: This occurs rarely 
on the kudurrus; it is on the stone of Nebuchadnezzar I., fig. 
1287. He shoots with a bow, and so seems to be related with 
such a constellation as Sagittarius. He is a composite figure, 
having the legs and talons of an eagle, as well as the body of 
a scorpion and the head and arms of a man. He is to be dis- 
tinguished, of course, from the scorpion which represents I[s- 
khara. With the scorpion-man must be connected Sagittarius 
in the form of a centaur, which is seen in figs. 629, 631-633. As we have the arrow 
alone as an emblem, it may be that it represents this same Sagittarius. An illustration 
of the scorpion-man is seen on cylinders fig. 630. Here see the “Arrow,” No. 23. 





22. The Horse’s Head appears but once, resting on 
Ppp ’ & 


















lonian art, and we may presume that some foreign deity 
is represented, but it is not clear which one. 







the divine seat and under a high arch, on the kudurru SHKD 
Nik RYSIGCA 
of Nebuchadnezzar I., fig. 1287. ‘This is, perhaps, the = fC = 
; BY &, Sa eS 
earliest representation of the horse that we have in Baby- BS eA’ Be 


TLBYHAAYD YIANNIS 


WT 
i) 


HH) 


i 


fel|D 


] 








23. The Arrow: We are unable to identify this [22] [23a] [230] 
emblem, except as it is likely to be related to the scorpion-man Sagittarius, con- 
sidered in No. 21. 


EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 407 


24. The Eagle on the bifurcated Column: While this emblem occurs quite 
frequently on the kudurrus, I am unable to identify it. The bifurcated column 
suggests the bifurcated end of the arrow notched for the string, as the 
shape is the same, and this may relate it to No. 23, but the two appear 
on the same kudurru, as in fig. 1291 a and b. 


25. The Sparrow and Plow: This might be taken for a’ bustard, 
but for the fact that it is represented on kudurru No. III of de Morgan 
as standing on a plow. The plow occurs in early Babylonian cylinders, 
as seen in Chapter x1x, on “Agricultural Gods”; but the plow is shown [24] 
in connection with deities of both sexes, so that it is not possible here to relate the 
sparrow and plow to either one of the deities that preside over agriculture. Per- 
haps it is Tammuz that is repre- 
sented, or the goddess Nisabu, or 
more likely Bau, whose name Hinke 








(“New Boundary Stone,” p. 231) LS 
reads doubtfully on the kudurru, ean . 
—— | yy! 





fig. 1284. Whether the bird on fig. 
554, which is shown in J, is the same a v ¢ d 
sparrow is a matter of doubt, for the cylinder belongs to the Persian period; but 
the goose (?) of d taken from fig. 1290 is the same sparrow. 


26. The Sheaf (shell? sponge?) occurs but once, on kudurru No. III of de 
Morgan (fig. 1286), and we have no clue to its meaning. Possibly it is a sector, 
to measure angles in architectural work. On an un- 
published kudurru an object something like this repre- 
sents an Elamite headdress, with a circle of feathers. 


27. The Tortotse occurs both on the cylinders and 
on the kudurrus, and with great probability is an alter- 
native emblem of Ea, as it occurs on a divine seat in the [26] (27] 
order where Ea elsewhere appears. Yet in this case, as in others, we desire a more 
definite translation, by students of the texts, of the animals mentioned. ‘The tor- 
toise in the place of Ea’s emblems is seen in figs. 1289 and 1292. 





28. The Eagle of Lagash: We can do no better than to regard Heuzey as 
correct in supposing that the eagle on a pole, with lions’ heads at the base, (d) was 
the standard of the city of Lagash, or Tello. Inasmuch as the chief god was Nin- 
girsu or Ninib (Nirig, Enu-reshtu, or En-mashtu,), we may also regard it as 
equally his emblem. When we further find the eagle figured alone, with no stand- 
ard, but in an heraldic attitude, we have the right to regard it as representing the 
same god. Even further, when we see the eagle with a lion’s head, in the same 
heraldic attitude, seizing an animal with each of its talons, as shown in Chapter Iv, 
we may presume a relation to the same chief god, who was afterwards identified 
with Ninib. The divine bird Imgig, mentioned on the cylinder of Gudea (Thur- 
eau-Dangin, Zeitschrift fir Assyriologie, October, 1904, pp. 127, 137), may be 
related to this bird (see No. 15). Occasionally it is seen on cylinders, as in 
fig. 1305a. We are told that the star called “Zamama’s eagle” was the god Ninib 


408 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


(Pinches, P. S. B. A. xxvii, p. 207). For an illustration of the eagle on a stand- 
ard, see fig. 39a. For the early appearance of the two-headed eagle, more charac- 
teristically Hittite, see fig. 421. A 
Hittite example is fig. 825. In the 
Gudea period it appears on the 
cylinders, single-headed usually. 


29. The Standard of Gilga- 
mesh: This is regarded by Heuzey 
as a form of gate-post, and when 
found alone would represent the 
god who carries it as porter, guar- 
dian, or warder. It has various 
modifications, sometimes the lower 
point of a spear, to allow it to be 
fixed in the ground, and sometimes 
a square enlargement at the top. 
According to Thureau - Dangin 
(Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, Oc- 
tober, 1904, p. 130) the Babylonian designation is urigallu (see Heuzey, Revue 
d’Assyriologie, v, p. 132). It will not be surprising to see Eabani carrying a standard 
like Gilgamesh, as in fig. 269. It is shown in No. 22a and 5 of the previous chapter. 





30. The Caduceus: This important emblem, called a candelabrum by Ménant, 
is not infrequent on Babylonian cylinders, especially of the Middle Empire. It 
does not appear in the Assyrian or Syro-Hittite figures. It is further referred to 
in No. 14 of this chapter. It consists of two serpents rising from a vertical stem, 
with imperfect bodies and heads thrown outward. ‘The neck is thickened, like that 
of the Egyptian asp. Between the two serpents is often a 
vase, as in fig. 1305a, but this is not always clear nor always 
present, so that the object looks like a bident or trident, or © 
even a candelabrum, and may be pointed, to be set up in the 
ground. Its serpentine character is discovered by comparing 
it with the single serpent, as in fig. 427 or in fig. 31, where 
the god carries the serpent as a rod over his shoulder. In fig. 1305) we have 
similar serpent over the shoulder, as in fig. 31. The vase on a column is peculiar. 
This emblem is held in the hand of Ishtar, as in figs. 135, 414, 416, 417. Doubt- 
less this caduceus, which may be the source of the Greek caduceus, was originally 
conceived of as a weapon (see Ward, “ Proc. Am. Or. Soc.,” 1888, pp. lxxxv—Ixxxviii). 





31. The Vase and “Libra”: The vase is one of the most common emblems 
on the cylinders of the Middle Empire, and is also to be seen, but more usually 
in the hands of a god, on those of an earlier period. ‘The seated, and sometimes 
the standing, Shamash holds a vase to his breast, from which the streams flow 
upward and then downward, as seen in Chapter 1. ‘The vase was also an element 
in the Babylonian caduceus, between the two serpents, and is seen on the kudurrus 
between the two lion heads in the symbol of Nergal (see No. 13). When seen by 
itself it was usually engraved in the upper part of the field, in a vacant place, and 


EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 409 


is properly accompanied by the so-called “libra,” which stands upright on the lower 
part of the field. But there is little reason to believe that the latter represents a 
balance. ‘The vase in the older seals has the definite shape of an aryballus, but 
later it would hardly be recognized as a vase and the lower part seemed slit with 
vertical lines, as if showing the dropping of water. In the case of one cylinder of 
the older period we see the vase turned on its side and the wide stream falling to 
the ground (fig. 129). The protuberance on the “libra” is usually a little above 
the middle, which unftts it to be a balance, and sometimes it is a complete circle, 








as in fig. 1306, where, most unusually, the vase is beside it. See also fig. 1307, 
where the double “libra” suggests the symbol of Nebo. The “libra”? appears so 
often that 1t would seem that it should be easy to discover what it is the emblem of, 
but I am unable to offer any sure conclusion. Possibly it is the object like a mace 
held in the hand by figures like Gilgamesh or Eabani, on each side of a god or other 
object, which Heuzey takes to be the post of a gate, and so the symbol of the gate 
or of the god who is its warder; or, more likely, it is the rod and circle held in the 
hand of a chief god, as in figs. 323-327. Prof. W. Max Miller suggests that it 


is a stand. 


32. The Bull: We have seen that the bull is related to Adad, the bellowing 
god of thunder, who carries the lightning in his hand. The bull is led by the god 
with a cord attached to a ring in its nose. But the bull 
was also related to the Moon-god Sin, probably because 
of the shape of the horns of the bison of the Elamite 
forests and mountains. It is occasionally seen leaping 
into the lap of a god (figs. 317, 318), who may be Sin. 
In the case of the bulls attacked by Gilgamesh there is no 
emblem intended, but simply wild beasts conquered by 
the hero, as Hercules destroyed dangerous animals. 





—=—S—— 

33. Human-headed Bull: Under the feet of a god is [324] (331 
occasionally seen, on the Babylonian cylinders, a bull lying down, with a human 
head. Precisely the same figure has been found in bronze or stone (fig. 322), as 
shown in Heuzey (“Cat. Ant. Chald.,” pp. 269, 287; “Monuments Piot,”’ v1, plate 
x1; 7b., vil, plate1). ‘This bull seems to be the foot-stool of the seated Shamash, and 
is hardly to be related with the figure of either Eabani or the human-headed bull 
with which Gilgamesh fought, in the early Chaldean cylinders. 


34. The Crane or Goose: For the discussion of this emblem ¢ 
see Chapter x11 on Bau-Gula, in which attention is called to the 
frequency with which this bird accompanies the goddess, although [34] 
not confined to her. 


410 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


35. The Man-fish: ‘The human-headed fish appears as early as Gudea, with the 
goat-fish of Ea, as shown in Chapter XxxvII, fig. 649. 
Heuzey takes it to represent the mythical Oannes, 
who came out of the water and taught the arts of 
civilization to the Babylonians. On the other hand 
Oannes has been identified by Lenormant and 
others with Ea. The man-fish is associated with 
the goat-fish, and so with Ea, and no better identif- va¥F 
cation than that with Oannes is at hand, although Oannes as distinct from Ea 1s 
not yet known in the literature of the inscriptions. 





36. The Monkey? Goat? It is not at all uncommon to meet with a squat 
creature, on the Babylonian cylinders of perhaps the later portion of the 
Middle Empire, which may be a monkey or an ape or a jackal, and some- 
times (once or twice distinctly) a goat; but the tail does not usually agree 
with either animal. It must have had a significance, but what it was is 
unknown. A consideration of figure 380 would lead to the conclusion that the 
animal was originally a goat. 


37. The Fly does not often appear, although sometimes seen on compara- 
tively late cylinders, as in fig. 523; but we have no further identification than is 
suggested in the name of the Syrian Beelzebub, god of flies. 


38. The Lotus: At times on cylinders related to the Vp 
Syro-Hittite class, we see a deity holding a wand sharply 
bent in the middle and expanded at the end, which 


is not a throw-stick, but is to be regarded as de- 
rived from the Egyptian lotus held by the gods, 


as in figs. 923, 940. | a i a 
39. The Tree of Life or Sacred Tree has been fully discussed in Chapter x1 


and takes various forms there shown. It represents the gifts of life and fortune 
presented to the worshiper, and certainly not the fertilization of the date-palm. 


40. The Rhomb or Oval: ‘This has usually been taken to be what Lenor- 
mant first called it, the xveis, or feminine emblem. But there is no special reason 
for so regarding it and it does not seem to be according to the spirit of the Assyrians, 
with whom we perhaps first find it. It does not appear until after the period of the 
middle Babylonian Empire and probably was introduced from farther to the west. 
It is usual enough in the Syrian art, and perhaps the most probable interpretation 
of it is to identify it with the eye so frequent in Egyp- 
tian symbolism. ‘The attempt to show that the triangle << <= 
was the feminine emblem is supported by no evidence on the cylinders. All that 
can be said is that the capillus pudendi is occasionally drawn by a triangle, as in 
ie 422. For further discussion see Ohnefalsch-Richter, Text, p. 147. 


200 
. The Seven Sibitti: Seven round dots are among the most Qe 
common emblems at a late period, but are not found in the first or @oa® 
middle Babylonian empire. They are called the Seven on the Senjirli a 
relief, and we may perhaps take them to be the seven Igigi; although they have 


EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 411 


sometimes been regarded as the seven heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and five 
planets. But this would imply an improbable duplication. Or they may represent 
Nergal, lord of the Pleiades; and this is supported by the fact that on a kudurru 
figured in No. 4, 1900, of the “Mittheilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, ”’ 
the dots have stars included, as in a. Similarly the dots are stars in fig. 752. 


42. The fish is a very frequent emblem on the late Syro-Hittite cylinders, 
but there is no definite clue to its symbolism known to me. On the older Baby- 
lonian cylinders the fish accompanies the streams that fall from the 
vase held by Shamash, to indicate that they are streams of water. 
But this seems to offer no solution to the fish which, with the rhomb, is 
so common on the late seals. We may naturally recall the sacred fishes 
still held in reverent protection in certain sacred pools in the East. 





[42] [43] 
43. The frog is not frequent, and its attribution is not known to me. 


44. The Head or Ax of Teshub: Very rarely we have a column, or ashera, 
with the head of the Hittite Teshub on it, as in fig. 1308, or his ax as in fig. 1309. 





1309 

45. The Guilloche or Rope Pattern: There are many forms of this, some com- 
plicated, which will be seen in the chapters in Syro-Hittite cylinders. This design 
comes into use with the Syro-Hittite period; and yet there are three examples of 
it in what seem to be quite archaic cylinders (see figs. 58, 95, 108a). In the case 
of two of these the rope pattern is, however, very irregular and angular, quite 
different from the carefully, if not suspiciously, regular form of the guilloche in 
the bituminous bas-relief, which would appear to be of the extremely early date of 
Entemena. For this see Heuzey, “Une Villa Royale,” p. 80; “Cat. Ant. Chald.,”’ 
p. 123. Heuzey says (“Une Villa Royale,” p. 40) that a copper vase of early 
Babylonian work has the interlace. This seems to be in Constantinople and I 
have not seen it. But certainly the guilloche was so rare in the early and middle 
Babylonian period that it might almost be said to be non-existent. It is character- 
istic of the Syro-Hittite art, being its most favorite ornament. It has many varia- 
tions in the choicest examples, being developed with braided forms, and at other 
times it is extremely simple. ‘The guilloche probably had its origin in ornamental 
work in gold wire, which was applied to metal or other work. In the earlier forms 
the helix, or S curve, seems to have prevailed, probably brought from Egypt, and 
then in Syria contracted, or consolidated, into the rope pattern. In the later forms, 


412 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


made with the tubular drill, the guilloche is almost lost, and often the partial circles 
of which it is composed have a central dot. This guilloche is abundant, 
with allied elaborate interlaces, in Mycenzan art, also developed from 
Egyptian ornaments at an early date. It is not clear that the guilloche 
was an emblem of any god or idea, and it may have been simply an ornament. 


46. The Rosette: We may regard this as simply an ornament; but there is a 
certain amount of evidence that it has relation tothe sun. The 2 

rosette is Assyrian or Syro-Hittite rather than Babylonian. In 
fig. 1310 the rosette is included in the circle of the winged disk. 


020 
008 
06° 





47. The vulture does not often appear on the cylinders, 
but is occasionally seen, with its long neck, on the more finely cut Syro-Hittite 
seals. It may be regarded as an importation from Egypt and as representative of 


the goddess Nut. 


48. The dove appears to be occasionally represented as accom- 
panying a Syrian Venus, as in figs. 924, 926, 927. 





49. The goat’s head is occasionally found on Hittite seals, and is a character- 
istic element in the Hittite syllabary. Sayce says it represents the god Tarkhu. 


50. The Crook: ‘This is single or double. In fig. 1311 an example is seen 
of the double crook, the curved ends divergent, standing over a recumbent gazelle. 








Ne) MI 
Uae <Oifyye r 


/ 
Fl 


Wee! Nt) 
ty } 
ig rail by, 
Ae : ay (SO ay See ‘Kt i= 
1312 


Beside it is the spear, emblem of Marduk. ‘This suggests that this double crook 
is the origin of the double column of Nebo, which usually accompanies the symbol 
of Marduk in the later art. Another example is to be seen in fig. 1312, where the 
two emblems again appear; but this time the crook is single, over the gazelle. 
In fig. 1313 the two crooks are again over the gazelle, but with- 


out the symbol of Marduk (see also de Clercq, No. 277). ‘| 
The crook is carried in the hand of a god, who may be \ | 





Nebo, in fig. 1314. We have the crook alone in fig. 1315. 

This seal has four flounced figures. One is a bearded god, - 
before whom is the crook, and also a worshiper with a goat. Then follow two 
goddesses en face, identical, except that one lifts her right hand, and the other her 
left. Beside them are inscribed the names of two deities, “Shamash” and “ Ram- 





EMBLEMS OF DEITIES. 413 


man”; but these have evidently no relation to the deities figured and were very 
likely added later by some owner of the cylinder. It seems somewhat probable 
that the crook is related to Nebo, but this is by no means certain. The crook 
must not be confounded with the lotus, to be seen on the Syro-Hittite cylinders, 
while those with the crook are Babylonian. 


51. The Crutch: It is not clear what this rather late emblem means. It 
sometimes seems to represent the crescent of Sin, and at other times it might be a 
form of the crook. 


OO 

52. The Emblem of Stability: This is taken from O|]O 

the Egyptian, where there are cross lines instead of SIS 
the dots. This emblem may be carried in the hand 


h 2 
of such a god as Shamash ta (s2] [52a] [525] 


53. The Rod and Ring: That this is an emblem significative of supremacy there 
can be no question from the way it is employed, as on the relief of Abu-habba, to give 


dignity to the Sun-god. The two objects are separate originally, 
but are carelessly united. In the relief of Abu-habba the rod is ” 
simple as in a, but in later art it became a wedge. This does 

a b 


not relate it to Nebo. It and the circle appear not to be weapons, 
but symbols of majesty and power, like the tablets of destiny. 


54. The Crux Ansata: It is only in close relation to Egyptian influence that 
we find the crux ansata on the cylinders. 


55. Lhe Hand: For examples of this Phenician emblem 
see figs. gOI, 1189. 


56. The Herm: In addition to the emblems of Teshub, 
arranged as a herm on a column, or ashera, we may include & 
the undesignated deity which we see in figs. 840 and 1017. [4] 55] [56] 
This belongs to the western region, not occurring in Babylonia or Assyria. It seems 
to correspond to a character in the Hittite hieroglyphics. 


The above are the more important emblems appearing on the cylinders. The 
others are mostly accidental, and so far as we know meaningless. 





CHAPTER LXxX. 


THE ANIMALS AND PLANTS FIGURED ON THE CYLINDERS. 


The Bison or Bison bonasus (Bos bonasus of the older nomenclature): This 
is the “bull” of the more archaic cylinders. It is still found wild in the Caucasus 
and is identical with the Lithuanian bison. The only other species is the Amer- 
ican bison, the Bison bison, which it much resembles. It is of the same size and 
shape, but it lacks the heavy, almost black, hair on the top of the head, which 
nearly conceals the horns in the American male. The Asiatic (and Lithuanian) 
bison is of a reddish brown or rufous tint, and the hair on the head is of the same 
length as that of the body. ‘The tail is rather shorter than in the domesticated 
cattle. The horns are short, rounded inward and slightly backward, quite different 
from the longer and more upright horns of the ancient aurochs, which 1s figured 
in the Cretan art. The horns are very accurately drawn on the cylinders in the 
earlier figures of Gilgamesh fighting the bison, which was properly regarded as a 
more formidable animal than the lion to meet in single combat. Accordingly 
Gilgamesh is represented as in fight with the bison, and Eabani with the lion. In 
the period immediately following the archaic, Gilgamesh fights the buffalo of the 
swamps, quite a different animal. The bison is an animal of the mountains and 
forests. The Babylonian name for the bison was rimu (Hebrew re’em). The 


archaic sign for alpu, ox, was Sw and that for rzmu was eva in which the 


three inclosed wedges are the sign for mountain, so that the meaning was the bull 
of the mountains, a proper definition of the rimu or bison. 

The bison may also be included in the meaning of the Babylonian buru 
(Hebrew bér), which was connected with the moon-god Sin, probably because of 
his horns, which are moon-like. Sin is described in a hymn to Nannar (Moon) 
as “the mighty buru, whose horns are strong” (W.A.I., tv, plate 9). That the 
“rimu of the mountains” is the Bison bonasus follows from the fact that the only 
other possible bull, the aurochs, or Bos primigentus, perhaps did not exist in Elam 
and does not seem to be clearly figured in the wild state. (See next page, “The 
Domestic Cattle.”) It has very much larger spreading horns, quite unlike those 
of the bison, which may be, says Lydekker, 38 inches long. The horns on the 
archaic cylinders are always short and round, whether on the head of the bull with 
which Gilgamesh is fighting, or on the head of the man-bull Eabani and the human- 
headed bull. The hairy body, so unlike that of the buffalo, is often shown as in 
fig. 182. The bison was not a native of the lowlands of Babylonia, where the 
buffalo wallowed in the swamps, but only of the highlands and forests of Elam. 
Many illustrations of the bison are to be seen in Chapters vi and x. 

The Buffalo or Bos bubalus: This is the native water-buffalo of the swamps 
of southern Babylonia, which prevails on the cylinders of the time of Sargon I. 
and his successors. It is an almost hairless black beast of enormous size, six 
feet high at the shoulders, and with immense ridged or crinkled horns, which 
fall back over the shoulders. In its wild state it is now extinct in this its native 

414 


ANIMALS AND PLANTS FIGURED ON THE CYLINDERS. 415 


home, but it, or a near congener, is still wild in the swamps of Nepaul and as far 
east as the island of Formosa. It is the ordinary domesticated cattle of the rice- 
fields in southern Babylonia, India, China, and the Philippines, and is to be seen 
even in Italy. It is perfectly evident from the early Babylonian art that it was as 
indigenous to the Euphrates valley as to India, although India is generally spoken 
of as its original seat and writers discuss as to the time when it was brought from 
India to Egypt, where it appears on the monuments. But there is no reason why 
the Bos bubalus should not have been indigenous also in the Nile valley. Indeed, 
Dr. J. Ulrich Duerst, in an article on “Prehistoric Bovide,” in L’ Anthropologie, 
1900, pp. 129-158, declares that the buffalo which is represented on Algerian 
rock-carvings is identical with that on Chaldean seals. The wild buffalo must 
have been the most formidable animal known to the early Babylonians, even more 
so than the bison and much more so than the lion. It is not clear what was the 
Babylonian distinctive term for the buffalo. It may have been included under 
the term for alpu, or even buru, although alpu was applied to the domesticated 
humped ox. 

The Aurochs (Bos primigenius) has been extinct for more than a century. 
While we have no evidence of its former prevalence in Elam, and it can not have 
lived in Babylonia, it was familiar to the north and throughout Europe. It appears 
to be found in the later cylinders from Asia or Syria. It is to be recognized by its 
long and raised spreading horns, very different from those of the Bos bubalus or 
the Bison bonasus. Our common domestic cattle are supposed to have come from 
the aurochs. Illustrations of the Bos primigenius are to be seen in figs. 484, 1220. 
In fig. 1060 a bull, apparently of this species, is drawing a chariot of war. 

The Domestic Cattle: Rarely a cylinder of much antiquity shows a purely 
agricultural scene, plowing with oxen. Examples are to be seen in figs. 369, 371, 
372. In these cases there are indications that the cylinders are not from lower 
Babylonia, but from some other region. The oxen attached to the plow are dis- 
tinctly not the bison nor the buffalo, but they have long upright and bent horns, 
and are doubtless the usual domesticated breed which appears early in Egypt and 
was domesticated from a very early prehistoric period, and widely disseminated. 
It doubtless originated in the aurochs, Bos primigentus, now extinct. It may be 
noticed that the copper head of a bull hgured by Heuzey in de Sarzec’s “ Décou- 
vertes,”’ plate 5 ter, figs. 2a, 2b (Heuzey, * aCateAnta Chaldeuepagi0.te0t05),chas 
horns of the type Bos primigenius, yet it very likely was not : work of Chaldean 
art, but was imported from abroad. ‘The bull tied apparently for sacrifice and 
cane onjts backyinud.. 4 ter, he» lt (ieuzey,, Gat. Ant. Chald)¥ p.105, fig. F1) 
may be a wild bison; it is not clear that it is a domesticated ox. It is possible that 
it is the domesticated ox that is represented in such scenes as figs. 370, 373, 1098, 
or even that it is the same which is seen in the designs where a bull is under the 
winged gate (Chapter xvii), as the horns appear more like those of the Bos primi- 
genius than of the Bison bonasus, and it differs in the shape of the body as well. 
Nor is it clear what is the species of bull or bison on which a warrior rides in fig. 
137) (as later one would ride a war-horse) and tramples over a fallen foe. ‘This 
seems to show that the bull was used for riding as now in Africa. In fig. 1098 we 
have the cow suckling her calf. . In fig. 1252, from a bas-relief, we have a unique 
case of sacrifice. 


416 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


The Zebu (Bos indicus) has the horns turned back and a hump on the shoulders. 
It is a somewhat smaller species of the ox family. It does not appear in Babylonian 
or Assyrian art until a rather late period, probably not earlier than 1000 B.C., 
perhaps somewhat later. A tablet once in my possession had on one side the con- 
tract for the sale of an alpu, or ox, and on the other side the scratched figure of 
this humped ox. More definitely the humped ox was alpu sumu’u. For perhaps 
the older examples, see figs. 459, 461, 930. ‘There is a picture of an alpu head, 
named, in Scheil’s “Recueil de Signes Archaiques,”’ 1898, p. 11. 

The Zion was well known and was found everywhere, in low lands and high. 
He still infests the Chaldean wilds, haunting the occasional thickets. He is power- 
fully and realistically conceived, usually as conquered by Gilgamesh, who lifts him 
by a hind leg, or tosses him over his shoulder, or swings him on his back, or breaks 
his back over his knee. On his part the lion attacks buffaloes, bulls, ibexes, or 
other animals. In the later Hittite art he becomes simply a heraldic emblem. 
The lion is the emblem of Ishtar, who stands often on one lion, occasionally on two, 
or has the lion figured on her throne. The lion’s head is given to composite animals, 
as the eagle of Lagash and the representations of Tiamat and the evil spirits. In 
the Persian art the lion is preéminent, being attacked by the god, and the lion is the 
present emblem of Persia and many other countries. On a Hittite seal a bull tosses 
a lion. The early drawing of the lion is crude, as seen in Chapter vit. 

The Leopard occasionally appears on the more archaic cylinders, very rarely 
on those of a later period. He is one of the animals engaged in conflict by Gil- 
gamesh and Eabani and is easily recognized by his lack of a mane and his spots. 
Examples of the leopard on archaic cylinders are to be seen in figs. 179, 195, 196. 
For later examples see figs. 702, 751. 

The Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) is one of the largest of the ruminants, next after the 
Bovidz. It is a powerful animal, about the size of the elk, and is remarkable for 
its long tail. Its horns are very long and reach over the shoulders and the back. 
It inhabits hills and forests. It rarely is seen in the older cylinders and is one of 
the animals with which Gilgamesh and Eabani fight. Examples appear in figs. 
58, 66, 67, 68. ‘The oryx may be the Sumerian alim, which is also a Sumerian name 
for Bel, and is translated kaptu, great, honorable. ‘The Semitic for alim, oryx, 
is ditanu, which seems to be the powerful animal of Bel (Pinches). 

The Mountain Sheep (Outs tragelaphus) seems to be occasionally represented 
on the cylinders. It will be recognized by its divergent, curved, spreading horns. 
See figs. 60, 170, 174, 380, 1069. 

The Ibex or Ture (Capra caucasica) may be confounded, from the shape of 
its horns, with the mountain sheep; but it has a beard (see figs. 56, 1075), which 
neither the sheep nor the oryx has. The Babylonian word for the ibex Ys shapuru, 
goat of the mountains. ‘There is another wild goat of the mountains known as 
the Capra egagrus, which has very long horns reaching over its back. Examples 
seem to be figs. 57, 63, 66, 94, 484, 490, 1067. The ibex was also perhaps ayalum 
in Babylonian, Hebrew ayal. The Sumerian is si-mul, which means star-horn 
or bright-horn. Delitzsch makes it the stag, but the stag’s horns are not shiny. 
The Assyrian turakhu is translated steinbock by Delitzsch. It is one of the names 
of Ka (W. A. L, 1v, plate 25, 1.40) and forms part of four other names of Ea (zb., 
II, plate 55). Na-a-lu is translated hind by Delitzsch, and armu is made the chamots. 


ANIMALS AND PLANTS FIGURED ON THE CYLINDERS. 417 


The Domestic Sheep was domesticated from the very earliest period and is 
occasionally figured, but not so frequently as the goat. It does not seem to be the 
present fat-tailed sheep of the region, which has probably been modified under 
domestication. For examples see figs. 392-396. The domestic sheep and goat are 
admirably shown on bas-reliefs from Nippur. See figs. 54, 1251, also 1257. 

The Domestic Goat is frequently seen on the cylinders and in bas-reliefs. It 
is extremely common to see a goat brought in the worshiper’s arms for sacrifice. 
That it is usually a goat and not an antelope, we may gather from cases like fig. 289, 
where the beard is distinctly drawn. The sheep and goats are seen driven out 
of a fold, or inclosure, at the earliest period of Chaldean art. The Babylonian 
words for goat are attudu (Hebrew attud) and enzu (Hebrew ‘z). The goat as 
figured on monuments about six thousand years old does not differ essentially 
from that now so familiar. It is being milked in figs. 391, 396. See figs. 54, 392- 
396, 1251. 

The Stag: It is not usual to find Gilgamesh fighting the stag, but occasionally 
he so appears in the more archaic monuments, as in figs. 149, 151. On the silver 
vase of Entemena (fig. 56) it appears with the ibex. In the later hunting scenes it 
is likely to appear, as in figs. 1081, 1084; sometimes distinctly the spotted fallow 
deer, as in figs. 1066, 1089, 1090. We also find the stag on the thick marble cylin- 
ders, as in fig. 498. ‘The head of the stag is on an altar, or table, before the god in 
fig. 733. 

The Gazelle must have been a very familiar animal to the inhabitants of the 
Euphrates valley from the earliest times, and even now is often made a pet. It is 
not unfamiliar on the cylinders, as is seen in figs. 703, 766. In fig. 277 it seems to 
be offered in sacrifice in place of the usual goat. 

The Antelope was, like the gazelle, a well-known animal and often appears 
on the cylinders, although it is not always easy to distinguish it from the wild or 
the domesticated goat. We seem to have the antelope in such cases as figs. 55, 94, 
118, 1008. In fig. 55 it seems to be domesticated and used for plowing. According 
to M. E. Naville the primitive Egyptians had domesticated the deer and the ostrich 
before the time of Menes (Report of lecture in Atheneum, 1906, p. 208). 

The Ass was familiar from the earliest times, as both wild and domesticated; 
and yet I recall but a single case in which it is figured in the older art of the cylin- 
ders. That is shown in a very archaic cylinder (fig. 108) in which an ass draws a 
two-wheeled chariot. It is probably the ass which in fig. 1096 draws a four-wheeled 
chariot. Boscawen says (“The First of Empires,” p. 124) that the chariot of 
Eannadu (about 4000 B. C.) was “drawn by asses,” but Heuzey says the animals 
drawing the chariot are missing, and they are not figured in either Heuzey’s “ Cata- 
logue” or his ‘‘ Découvertes.” 

The Horse in Sumerian was called “the ass of the mountains.” It was, then, 
a later animal to come to the knowledge of the Babylonians and was not domesti- 
cated as first known. It is figured on a so-called boundary stone of Nebuchad- 
nezzar I., about 1140 B.C. (fig. 1287), but must have been known to them in 
domestication much earlier. Indeed, it was introduced into Egypt at the time of 
the Hyksos about 1700 B.C. It is, perhaps, not found at all on the cylinders 
coming from Babylonia before the Persian period, but we find it at a much earlier 
period on the Syrian and other cylinders of northern regions. A Syrian goddess 

27 


’ 


418 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


is drawn by horses in a chariot, as seen in Chapter tim. In hunting scenes 
the hunter often either rides on a horse (figs. 1075-1079, 1081, 1082) or is in a chariot 
(see figs. 1083, 1084, 1088, 1104), and the same is true of the soldier in war (see figs. 
1057-1060). But that wagons or chariots were known at an extremely early period, 
even the most archaic, is clear from the war chariot of Eannadu (Heuzey, “Cata- 
logue des Ant. Chald.” p. 105, D1; “‘Découvertes,” plate 3 bis, and 4 ter), but 
unfortunately the animals drawing it are missing. They may be, as Boscawen 
says, asses, or more likely bulls, just as in fig. 137) one is riding on the back of a 
bull. Those archaic cylinders in which we see a god in a chariot drawn by a dragon 
(figs. 127, 128) are also evidence of the very early employment of some kind of 
animal to draw wheeled vehicles. ‘The only archaic cylinder known in which the 
chariot is drawn by an animal and not a mythical figure (fig. 119) is very much 
worn, so that it is not clear what the animal is. I supposed it to be a horse (Am. 
Journal of Arch., 1898, pp. 159-162), but on further study I am inclined to think 
it is a bull. The horse is mentioned in the Gilgamesh epic (tablet 6, 1, 53), 
and the reading is clear, the common ideograph for sisu, ass of the mountain, 
being used. The word also appears in I, 20, but (as Jastrow writes me on this 
subject) the passage is doubtful. “If Jensen’s restoration szsuka, thy horse, is 
correct, we would have a proof of the horse tamed for drawing a chariot. As the 
passage stands it remains doubtful whether in the Gilgamesh Epic the wild or the 
tamed horse is meant. At all events the juxtaposition with Jion (nesu, 1,51) indi- 
cates that it is used as a symbol of strength.” Jastrow further mentions that the 
horse first appears in Kallima-Sin’s letter to King Amenophis, No. 1 of the Berlin 
Collection of Amarna archives, about 1400 B. C., in which he gives greeting to the 
King’s “house, wives, land, chariots, and horses.” From the time of Tiglath 
Pileser I. (1100 B.C.) horses are often mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions. 
Most important of all to show the earliest use of an animal for draft purposes is 
the fragment from Nippur, of the extremest antiquity (fig. 55), given in Hilprecht’s 
Babylonian Expedition, 1, plate 16. This seems to antedate the use of even the ass 
as well as the ox and the horse, and shows us a man plowing with a horned animal, 
not a goat or sheep, which may be a gazelle or antelope. It would be interesting 
to know at what period the horse was adopted in the Babylonian constellation. 

The Bear is seen, as | remember, on but one late cylinder (fig. 1077). The 
animal stands on its hind legs, in the attitude familiar in modern art. 

The Camel: ‘This quadruped occurs but once, I think, on a cylinder (fig. 
1080) where an Arab is hunting a lion. 

The Wild Boar must have been very common, as it still is, in the valleys and 
swamps, but it is very rarely figured. It appears on one very early cylinder (fg. 
102), where it is feeding in a swamp among the reeds. We have a much later 
cylinder (fig. 1030) all covered with small swine; and there are scenes in which a 
hunter attacks a boar with a spear (figs. 1063, 1064, 1082, 1097a). 

The Dog appears very early, and then perhaps as the guardian of the flock. 
We see him in the seals which show us Etana and the eagle, looking up to heaven 
as if to watch his vanishing master (Chapter xxu1). He is on the later Babylo- 
nian cylinders, as in figs. 549, 551. He is frequently figured on hunting scenes 
(figs. 630, 1064, 1075, 1094) of the Persian period or earlier. The dog was the 
emblem of Gula-Bau, as shown by the kudurrus (figs. 1285-7, 1289, 1290, 1292). 


ANIMALS AND PLANTS FIGURED ON THE CYLINDERS. 419 


The Monkey: We seem occasionally to have what is definitely the monkey, 
as in figs. 733, 914, but usually what may look like a short-tailed monkey rampant 
is more likely a goat. It is a plain monkey in fig. 926. 

The Fox is shown on a single cylinder (fig. 1033). 

The Rabbit: A long-eared rabbit or hare is very often to be found on the 
Syro-Hittite cylinders, rarely elsewhere. It is figured as held in the hand, as for 
food, or by itself. “The head sometimes is given alone. It is also abundant in Egyp- 
tian art and is a fundamental hieroglyph. See figs. 401, 839, 902, 904, 917. 

The Porcupine occasionally appears on cylinders of the middle Babylonian 
period, as if to fill up a space near the top of the scene, as in fig. 425. 

The Tortoise also appears on cylinders of the middle Babylonian period, and 
in the same position as in fig. 453. 

The Frog: The same is true of the frog, except that we also have cases in 
which, at a later period, frogs fill the whole space of the cylinder surface, as in fig. 
1028. See also fig. 528. 

The Crocodile or Lizard: We seem to have a lizard in fig. 151. It is some such 
creature which is speared in the curious archaic cylinder, fig. goo, which belongs 
to a very early Asianic art. 

The Serpent plays a considerable part in Babylonian art. ‘Two serpents, 
twined about a pole, occupy the central portion of the design on the extraordinary 
vase of Gudea shown in fig. 368c, on each side of which is a fantastic dragon hold- 
ing the standard discussed under No. 22 of Chapter Lxvit1. This was dedicated to 
the god Ningishzida. With this compare quite as old a cylinder in fig. 95. On 
the cylinders of the early and middle Babylonian period, especially the latter, the 
serpent does not usually seem to be an important element, but it is simply the 
upright serpent, which seems to have been added to fill a space. An example is 
the seal seen in fig. 388, which shows us a god and a goddess sitting each side of a 
tree, but which has been supposed to represent the temptation of Adam and Eve. 
A serpent seems to protect a tree in fig. 710. See also figs. 1394, 428. The serpent 
does not seem to have been usually an evil spirit; but we find later, in the Assyrian 
period, the serpent taking the place of Tiamat in the fight with Marduk. ‘Two 
such cases have been given, in the chapter on “Bel and the Dragon.” In one of 
these (fig. 579) the serpent is simply armed with horns; while in the other (fig. 
578) it is also provided with short hands. In the Hittite cylinder art we have a 
case which reminds us of the serpent vase of Gudea, for we see (fig. 796) the ser- 
pent twined about a pole, precisely as in the biblical story of the brazen serpent, 
nehushtan, gazed at by the Hebrews when bitten by the fiery serpents, and after- 
wards destroyed by Hezekiah for its idolatrous character. Compare fig. 905. In 
fig. 823 a Hittite worshiper grasps two serpents. In Egyptian art the serpent was 
related to the king, and so in Hittite art the king carries a serpent in his hand. 
See figs. 777, 778, 794, 855, 856; cf. 811, 823, 913. In the later Assyrian, Gilgamesh 
strangles serpents, thus preparing the way for the myth of Hercules. It appears 
to be Adad-Teshub who does the same in fig. 913. But this contest 1s even of the 
archaic period as seen in fig. 120; and Horus equally strangles serpents (fig. 640). 
In fig. 72 the eagle of Lagash similarly strangles the serpents. It is also to be noticed 
that in the magnificent Assyrian bas-relief of Bel and the Dragon (fig. 564) the 
dragon’s phallus is a serpent. Doubtless Heuzey is right in seeing serpent heads on 


420 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


the composite figures each side of the serpents in the Gudea vase. The very 
frequent use of the serpent as a caduceus or weapon is considered in No. 30 of 
Chapter LxIx. 

BIRDS. 


The Eagle or Hawk: One chapter of this volume is devoted to “Etana 
and the Eagle” (Chapter xxi1). There we have Etana borne by the eagle to 
heaven. In Chapter Iv, on archaic cylinders, we see again a mythological eagle 
seizing with its talons two lions or other animals. ‘This eagle is always drawn 
in a heraldic attitude, and there is one case given, as early as Gudea, where the 
eagle has two heads. But the two-headed eagle is rather characteristic of Hittite 
art, as seen in fig. 825. Possibly the eagle is confounded with the vulture, but the 
latter appears rather on the Hittite seals. In certain seals of probably the Assyrian 
period a god attacks three eagles (hgs. 507) 598). The eagle is apt to be one of the 
elements that enter into the composition of various fantastic mythological creatures 
(such as Tiamat, Chapter vii1) and the monsters with which the god fights in the 
Assyrian representation of Bel and the Dragon. The composite creature brought 
before Shamash for judgment (Chapter xv) has the body of an eagle and the upper 
portion human, while the Tiamat figures make the head that of a lion. We must 
regard the wings and tail of the solar disk as belonging to the eagle. For the rela- 
tion of the eagle, or hawk, to the Persian simurgh, see page 237 in the discussion of 
the Tree of Life, Chapter xxxvill. 

The Vulture: The true vulture, with the long naked neck, is hardly to be 
seen on the Babylonian or Assyrian cylinders, or is not distinguished from the 
eagle; but in the Syro-Hittite cylinders we occasionally see this purely Egyptian 
form, which represents the protecting goddess Nut. Probably it was introduced 
at the time of the Egyptian invasions of the eighteenth dynasty. Examples are in 
figs. 813, 835, 917. 

The Ostrich comes in only at a late period as taking the place of ‘Tiamat in 
the conflict with Bel. A very fine case is seen in the cylinder (fig. 42) belonging 
to an Armenian king. ‘The ostrich was exceedingly well drawn, showing perfect 
familiarity with this bird, which must at that time have lived in the Arabian desert 
and perhaps elsewhere in the neighborhood of Assyria. The god sometimes 
attacks one ostrich and sometimes two ostriches. See figs. 587-597, 687. 

The Stork: It is by no means clear what the bird is that so frequently appears 
with the goddess Bau-Gula (figs. 230-234). Sometimes it rather appears to be a 
goose, and sometimes a crane. The stork feeds in winter in great flocks in the 
swamps of Babylonia, and builds in the neighborhood. ‘The importance of the 
goose in Egypt might suggest that this is the bird figured with the goddess, and at 
times elsewhere. It would appear to be a crane which we see looking up on each 
side of a cypress in fig. 235. Inasmuch as a bird like a bustard appears on the 
kudurrus (figs. 1284, 1289, 1290), we might expect it on the cylinders, but I am not 
sure that it appears, unless it may be the same as that which looks like a goose, etc. 

The Swan: In one or two archaic Babylonian or Assyrian seals we have 
clearly the swan repeated to form one register of the design (fig. 93). It also 
appears on an altar or table, as if for sacrifice (fig. 735). 

The Goose: In addition to what is said above, under “The Stork,”’ it would 
seem to be the goose which we see in such a case as fig. 408. 


ANIMALS AND PLANTS FIGURED ON THE CYLINDERS. 421 


The Cock appears doubtfully only on quite late cylinders, of the Persian period 
or not much earlier (see figs. 554, 556, 1126). ‘This suggests the late introduction 
of this bird to the country. In his Introduction to Count d’Alviella’s “Migration 
of Symbols,” p. x, George Birdwood calls attention to the fact that in the fifth 
century the cock had reached Lycia, as shown by cocks’ heads on a Lycian 
coin forming the three “legs” of the triskelion; and the cock is also on the harpy 
monument at Xanthus. It is somewhat earlier on the cylinders, probably; and, 
as it seems characteristic of the Persian period, we may connect it with the 
Avestan honor to the cock Parodans which calls to early prayer. See Vendidad, 
VIII 32 3551): 

The Sparrow was doubtless abundant everywhere in Babylonia from the 
earliest times as now; but it does not clearly appear in the cylinder art until we meet 
it with the eagle and vulture in the Syro-Hittite art, evidently taken, with these 
two birds, from Egypt. The sparrow is distinguished from the eagle by its round 
head, while that of the eagle is represented as slender and flat. The sparrow was 
the standard of the West in Egypt, and formed the head of Horus (see fig. 943). 
It is very likely the sparrow that is on the plow in a kudurru (fig. 1286.) But 
compare figs. 1289, 1290. 

The Dove appears as the special bird of the nude, or semi-nude, goddess on 
the Syro-Hittite cylinders. We have examples in figs. 902, 924, 926, 927, 938. 

Occasionally a bird is seen on a tree, or standard, as in figs. 702, 712, which 
can not be identified with any particular bird and perhaps was not intended to be. 
In some cases, as in fig. 697, it may represent a mythologic Persian bird, simurgh. 

The Locust: Once or twice the locust is distinctly shown, as in figs. 770, 1091. 
On Assyrian bas-reliefs we sometimes see locusts strung on a stick, as if for food. 

The Fly: Once in a while a vacant place is filled with a fly, or bee, as in figs. 
425, 475, 480, 523. We need not forget that there was a Syrian god Baal-zebub, 
Baal of the Fly. 

The Scorpion is one of the most frequently figured objects on the cylinders. 
The scorpion was a rather abundant insect and much feared. It therefore became 
the emblem of the god. For examples see figs. 178, 194, 1021. It appears on the 
cylinders from a very early period. It was the emblem of Iskhara. 

Fishes: Little need be said of fishes. No particular species is indicated. 
In the earlier cylinders we see the fish figured to indicate that the stream flowing 
from a vase in the god’s lap (Chapter xiv) was really water. It often appears to be 
used in later seals simply to fill a space otherwise vacant. 


The Crab is seen in fig. 199. 


TREES AND PLANTS. 


There is by no means the care in the delineation of trees and plants that we 
find in that of animals, and only a very few are distinguishable. Thus, the vine 
which we find on Assyrian bas-reliefs is not, I think, to be found on any cylinders. 
Among those that we meet are the following: 

The Cypress: It is not possible to say certainly that it is the cypress that is 
found especially on the older cylinders, and it may be considered a pine or a cedar. 
It has a conventional form and is at times figured as growing on a mountain. We 
may fairly take it to be a tree of the hills, and so of either Elam or Arabia, much 


422 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


more probably the former, especially as it occurs with figures of the sun rising in 
the east and in connection with mountains. For examples see figs. 46, 177, 200. 
(See also Chapter Lxx1.) The shape of the cone is not fully given to the fruit, which, 
indeed, the dimensions of the cylinder would hardly allow. In the later art the 
cypress quite disappears. 

The Date-palm is generally quite conventionally represented, so as sometimes 
to be hardly recognized except from its fruit. The branches are usually placed 
one above another, as if growing successively out of the prolonged trunk, instead 
of forming their annual growth in a clump from the apex of the stem. But the fruit 
leaves no manner of doubt. ‘This is drawn in two masses of indistinguishable 
dates hanging one on each side of the trunk, below the leaves. An example, not of 
the earliest period, is to be seen in the famous “Temptation Cylinder” (fig. 388); 
and a better one on the cylinder in The Hague (fig. 389), which must always be com- 
pared with it. Probably many rude representations of trees, but without fruit, must 
be referred to palms. Ina certain number of cases, and apparently the older ones, 
the Tree of Life is evidently a palm (figs. 665, 680), but it soon lost the likeness of 
any sort of tree that ever grew out of the ground. In the chapter on “The Tree of 
Life,’’ it is shown that the theory which supposes the flowers of the date-palm to be 
fertilized by the attendant figures holding up what looks like a cone, is an error. 
The date is supposed to have originated in Africa, but it must have reached Baby- 
lonia at an early period, quite as early as Sargon, although it is not found on the 
cylinders of the archaic period. See figs. 1104, I120. 

The Fig: It was not till a very late period, perhaps five or six hundred years 
before our era, that a tree appears which may be regarded as the fig. For examples 
see figures 1066, 1089. In connection with the fig tree, we find sometimes a peculiar 
aster-like flower. 

The Reed of the swamps appears occasionally in a fairly early period, but not 
the very earliest. The reed belongs to the swamps and would hardly appear in the 
earlier art of mountainous Elam. We see it in a fine cylinder in the Louvre, which 
represents two oxen in a swamp. Here we see how the lower thick leaves are dis- 
tinguished from the tall flowering spikes (fig. 370). See also fig. 181. We may 
conclude that where we find figured a single strict spike it represents a reed. 

Wheat or Barley: It would be impossible to distinguish these grains in the 
art of the cylinders. They are seen in the worship of deities, as in the figures in 
Chapter x1x, on the “Agricultural Gods.”’ There the god is adorned with heads 
of grain, as also the worshipers. 

The Millet, sometimes called Egyptian wheat or doura, is to be seen occasion- 
ally on older seals. It has a heavier head of grain and at present is considered a 
coarser food. It is to be seen in fig. 381. 

The Lotus does not properly belong to Babylonian or Assyrian glyptic art; 
but being so familiar in Egyptian art it could hardly escape being introduced into 
the Syrian region with other Egyptian elements, and extending farther east. It 
appears, however, only as held in the hand of a god; and even so it is not so dis- 
tinctly drawn as to be easily or even surely identified. When we see, as in fig. 904, 
a god holding in his or her hand a bent rod, with the upper end enlarged and held 
to the nose, we may probably take it to indicate the lotus. The papyrus does not 
certainly appear. 


ANIMALS AND PLANTS FIGURED ON THE CYLINDERS. 423 


The Datsy: A star-like flower accompanies the fig-tree on a number of seals 
of the Persian period. It is probably impossible to designate the species, but it 
appears to be a composite flower, much resembling a daisy or aster of some sort 
(see figs. 1066, 1069, 1072). 

Silphtum: Perhaps we should add the silphium, so much valued in ancient 
commerce. At any rate a peculiar and apparently conventionalized plant is occa- 
sionally seen which may perhaps represent the silphium (see figs. 612, 682). For 
a drawing of silphium see Ridgeway’s “Early Age of Greece,” I, p. 223. 

The Jvy: A single late cylinder with an ivy leaf is shown in fig. 1216. The 
ivy gave the cylinder the look of early Greek workmanship. 

The Thistle: A flower like a thistle is shown in fig. 913. 


CHAPTER LXXI. 
ORIGIN OF THE BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION, FROM ARCHZOLOGY. 


For many years there was an inclination among scholars to regard Egypt as 
the home of the oldest civilization. Such was the Greek and Roman idea, and it 
was accepted among modern scholars whose first explorations in the field of primi- 
tive culture and history were made in Egypt. About 1890 a number of adventurous 
scholars in the field of Babylonian antiquity began to suggest that certain common 
characters in the mythology of the two peoples, and certain common points in 
their culture, pointed to a common origin at a very early period, and even that the 
Babylonian culture was the source of that of the earliest Egyptian dynasty. ‘This 
conclusion, at first stoutly resisted, has now come to be very widely held among 
Egyptologists, especially as the remains of the autochthonous population of Egypt 
begin to be known and distinguished from that culture which was superposed by 
the first Egyptian dynasty, which we now find to be historical. 

But the question must now be carried a step further. What is the source of 
the Babylonian culture? Is it truly autochthonous? Such has been the usual 
supposition, based on the supposed earliest traditions of Genesis and other sources, 
and we knew nothing back of it. Further, it has seemed plausible that a civiliza- 
tion was most likely to begin in a river-bottom, where agriculture would be first 
developed, and where cereal grains could be best cultivated, and population become 
dense, and a division of labor would result, with the consequent division of property. 
To be sure there are many such river-bottoms of various extent, but the valley of 
the Tigris and Euphrates, like that of the Nile, is one of the largest in the Old World 
and supplies ideal conditions for such a development; and, besides, it has the 
advantage of old tradition. . 

At an extremely early period in Babylonian history two races, with two differ- 
ent languages, occupied the land, the Sumerians and the Semites. The Semites 
are supposed to be of a later invasion and to have come from Arabia. The Sumer- 
ians were of a Mongol or Turanian stock, and would seem to have extended far 
to the east of Babylonia. The question before us is whether they developed their 
civilization in Babylonia, or whether they brought it with them. 

In favor of their being the original autochthonous stock is the fact that we know 
of no antecedent population. There may, very likely, have been an original inferior 
negrito population, who lived by hunting, but the only evidence we have of it is 
in an occasionally discovered stone arrow-head. ‘The Sumerians were acquainted 
with bronze as well as gold and silver, but with them the use of stone implements 
survived, and they may have used stone arrow-heads. The dense bottom-lands 
of the Tigris and Euphrates were hardly adapted for the residence of hunters, 
where there were no trees or rocks or caves for refuge and residence. Such a region 
belongs to an agricultural people. As to the native origin of Babylonian culture 
we are confined mainly to the evidence of Babylonian art, and that the oldest. 
We must go back to the most archaic period, and see what were the ideas of the 

424 


ORIGIN OF BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION, FROM ARCH /EOLOGY. 425 


people and whether they developed their mythology in a land of rivers and swamps 
and fertile bottoms, or in another kind of surroundings. Our sources of informa- 
tion must go back of Hammurabi, who is comparatively late, back of Gudea, 
back even of the Elder Sargon, and must reach back at least as far as Eannadu and 
Lugal-zaggisi, to an unrecorded antiquity. 

And yet there are certain clues from the written monuments that are not to be 
entifely overlooked and which point to an extreme or equal antiquity for Elam as 
compared with Babylonia. The physical conditions of Elam were quite different 
from those of Babylonia. ‘There the river-bottom reached to the forest foot-hills 
of high mountains, with their entirely different plant and animal life. As early in 
the second chiliad B. C. the Kassites from Elam overran Babylonia, so these hardy 
men did the same thing at the earliest historical period. The first inscriptions of 
Babylonian rulers record wars with Elam, implying a conflict with races whose 
rivers flowed down from not very distant hills and forests. Further, the oldest 
legends are related to Elam. Gilgamesh himself, conqueror of Erech, appears to 
have come from Elam; and as ruler of Erech he fought with Khumbaba, the Elam- 
ite king, whose palace was in a garden of cedars, trees that do not grow in Baby- 
lonia. Equally Etana, in his search for the plant of birth, went to the mountains, 
doubtless of Elam. For aught that historical research shows, Elam may have had 
a civilization as old as that of Babylonia, or older. It is the purpose of this chapter 
to show that there are indications that Babylonian art and religion had their origin 
in Elam. 

The ordinary representation of the Sun-god, Shamash, in the period of the 
Middle Empire, say from 2800 B. C. downward, was that of a standing figure, in 
a long garment, with one leg thrown forward and bare, and the foot resting on a 
low stool (see fig. 262). ‘That stool was the conventional suggestion of a moun- 
tain. In the earliest period in which we find this god represented, going back to 
an archaic period, we find the Sun-god, holding a flint-studded weapon, standing 
sometimes with one foot stepping on a mountain, sometimes between two moun- 
tains and lifting himself up by his hands resting on them both. He comes out 
from the gates of the East and rises out of the mountains (see Chapter x11). 

Now there are no mountains in Babylonia. The eastern mountains are not 
visible from the valley of the Tigris. One has to go east into Elam, to the region of 
the city of Susa, to find mountains in the landscape. ‘To be sure there were travel 
and trade, no doubt, and visitors to and from Babylonia might tell of high moun- 
tains, but in Babylonia itself it would not be likely for a conception of the Sun-god 
to be developed which would connect him with mountains. Indeed, there is another 
frequent figure of the Sun-god seated (Chapters xiv, xv), and yet another of the 
god in a boat (figs. 110a, 293), which might very well have arisen in Babylonia. 

But Shamash was not the only Sun-god, although the one most worshiped. 
There were Sun-gods of various seasons of the day and year. Another figure of a 
Sun-god, perhaps Nergal, represents him as fighting an enemy and pushing him 
against mountains (Chapter 1x). This also is a very early and archaic design, and in 
the later art, as the god was conventionalized, the mountains were quite lost. They 
had been forgotten. Here the thought seems to be that the Sun-god rising towards 
noon attacks the cloud-spirits hovering over the mountains and drives away the 
mists; or it may be that he drives away the storm-demons of winter, as he passes the 


426 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


vernal equinox. Here are not only mountains, but there appears to be the concep- 
tion of the nature of the clouds that hover over them, and which are driven away 
by the sun. This is a conception that could not have originated in Babylonia. 

Further evidence comes to us from the plant life and animal life represented 
in the earliest art. Babylonia was a land of swamp and lowlands, not of forests. 
It had thickets, but no tall trees except the palm, as far as we know. ‘The thickets 
were overgrown with willows, tamarisks, and other low shrubs, but no high trees 
except the cultivated date-palm. ‘The swamps were thick with reeds, but still no 
trees. On the somewhat higher alluvial levels, not covered with water and reeds, 
the sun beat down in the long summers, and only those plants could grow that might 
resist the drought, the licorice and leafless vegetation, just as cactuses grow on 
our western deserts. It required irrigation to make this soil fertile. The reeds 
that were most characteristic, before the date-palm was introduced, probably from 
Africa, are often represented on the bas-reliefs, which show later royal conquests 
and are also seen on the cylinders, as in figs. 102, 159, 162, 181. 

But we also find, in the earlier cylinders, a high tree that appears to be a cypress 
or cedar—such a tree as we are told the early kings brought from distant mountains 
for the construction of their temples. Such we see in figs. 46, 50, 200, 217, 296, 
317. With such trees, which grow on mountains, and are in figs. 46, 177, 200 set on 
a mountain, their gods were connected. Such trees could not have been found in 
the valley system of the two great rivers. To be sure we know that as early as the 
time of Gudea timber of such trees was brought by commerce by great rulers, and 
so the trees were known, but their design would naturally have been produced 
originally in a land where they grew and were familiar; and further, the cylinders 
on which these cypresses are drawn are of an older period than Gudea. 

But we could not expect much evidence from plant life. That from animal 
life is more abundant and would seem to be almost, if not quite, conclusive. 

The animals of the mountains and forest are generally different from those of 
the swamp and the river-bottom. Chief among the animals of the river-bottom 
and neighboring thickets are the lion and the water-buffalo. The lion extends into 
the lower forests, but hardly on the higher mountains. The water-buffalo, Bos 
bubalus, is found only in regions where he can wallow in the water. He is an 
immense black, almost hairless animal, with marked and notable horns, that lie back 
over his shoulders. In art he is perfectly distinct and is often represented on the 
cylinders of an early period, as he is the beast attacked by Gilgamesh while Eabani 
attacks a lion. This water-buffalo is shown in figs. 26, 161, 163, 167, and the cylinders 
on which he appears are older than Gudea, and go back to the time of Sargon L., 
whose age is variously estimated from 3000 to 3800 B.C. 

The bull of the mountains and forests is a very different animal. It is the 
Bison bonasus, a near relative to the American bison. It is also a very powerful 
animal with thick red hair and short round horns, not spreading and bent back, 
but rising moon-like from the head. It is still found wild in the Caucasus, but is 
a different animal from the true aurochs, now extinct, which may also have been 
native to this region. It is impossible to confuse this bull bison of the forests with 
the water-buffalo of the swamps, although it might be confounded with the longer- 
horned aurochs. Now this highland bison is the only bull, with the possible excep- 
tion of the aurochs, which appears occasionally in later cylinders, depicted on the 


ORIGIN OF BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION, FROM ARCHAEOLOGY. 427 


most archaic Babylonian cylinders, which antedate the time of Sargon. The water- 
buffalo is never found. Illustrations are to be seen in figs. 114, 116, 119, 120, 141d, 
VASTIIAA VHS 2 eld 55 ad 0) 100) 817 Inn 1102.0 LS os) 50,)100,107,.201, lt .would 
then seem that to those who first produced this art the bison was more familiar 
than the buffalo. ‘That is, this art had its origin, apparently, in the hill region of 
Elam, and not in the valley system of the Euphrates and Tigris, and equally not in 
the dry and barren and treeless regions of Arabia. 

Another very important point is that the composite man-bull Eabani, the 
friend of Gilgamesh, has the body of a bison and not of a buffalo, as shown some- 
times by the hair and especially by the horns, which are short and round and are 
not those of the water-buffalo. Illustrations are seen in figs. 125, 142, 144, 150, 
176-187. ‘These horns rise from the top of the human head of Eabani. Equally 
the human-headed bull—more bull-like than Eabani, not having, like Eabani, 
human arms, with which Gilgamesh also fights—always has these same short bison 
horns, as shown in figs. 1104, 144, 147, 148, 188-197. This fact as to these two 
mythological beings is even more important than the representations of the bull 
itself, for here the shape of the horns persists even to the latest period of the rep- 
resentation of Eabani and the human-headed bull, although the bison, when 
attacked by Gilgamesh, has given place to the buffalo. Now it is to be considered 
that these composite beings (Eabani, mostly human, and the human-headed bull, 
mostly bull) are of the very greatest antiquity. These forms must have been created 
in the land where the bison was the familiar animal, and therefore in the mountain 
region and not in the river-bottoms; and this carries with it the origin of the 
Babylonian civilization and mythology. 

The bison is not the only animal characteristic equally of the very earliest 
art and of the mountain region of Elam or Persia. Over and over again the lion, 
or Gilgamesh, or Eabani, is represented as attacking the ibex or the oryx, with 
hill and forest animals, and occasionally the deer with branching horns. None of 
these animals, except the lion, was to be found in Babylonia, but in Elam. Figures 
of these animals occur repeatedly on the most archaic cylinders and show the evi- 
dent source of the art. Examples are shown in figs. 56-59, 62-69, 80-82, 89, 94, 
and in Chapters vil and Xx passim. In fig. 151 we thus see lions attacking a bison 
and a deer with branching horns. 

We have then a combination of evidence from different directions, but all 
converging to the same conclusion, that the origin of the art and mythology of 
Babylonia was not in Babylonia, but in Elam. This evidence includes the moun- 
tains themselves, the trees upon them, and the animals that wandered in the forests, 
and we must further consider that the very materials of which the cylinders are made 
point to the same conclusion. Only the shell is found on the coasts of both Chaldea 
and Elam; the serpentine, black and green, the marble, the aragonite, the jasper, 
the lapis-lazuli, all must have been found in a region of hills, such as that where we 
know the lapis-lazuli was obtained. In such a country the art would seem to have 
arisen, where its material was at hand. Elam is more probable than Arabia; the 
ostrich and camel never appear in the older art. 

Nor is this conclusion at all contradicted, so far as I can see, by the written 
monuments. If the earliest civilized race was the Sumerian it may well have come 
from Elam, where there was in later times a Turanian population. Further the 


428 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 


very early inscriptions tell of constant wars with Elam, which seems to have been 
equally a strong and populous country which in its turn conquered Babylonia. We 
know that as early as the time of Naram-Sin, son of Sargon I., and even earlier, 
there were such campaigns. One of the most spirited of the very early bas-reliefs 
gives the conquest of Naram-Sin over Elam; and de Morgan believes that he 
found in Elam the oldest of all the existing rock sculptures and inscribed tablets. 
So far, then, as the written texts may guide us, the civilization of Elam may be as 
old as that of Babylonia; and the evidence here presented shows that it may well 
have been the source from which it was conveyed by conquest to Babylonia. Indeed, 
according to the genealogical lists of Genesis 10 Elam was the eldest son of Shem, 
and Asshur came next after him. 





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